


BOSS

by thatchicken_cf (Rainbow_star_tea)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Crimes & Criminals, Gangs, M/M, Organized Crime, Violence, boss au, idk its not in this chapter itll come later, theyre not all in this bit but they will be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-24
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-04-27 05:35:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 30,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14418783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainbow_star_tea/pseuds/thatchicken_cf
Summary: Taeyong organizes his gang as best he can, but sometimes things get out of his control. When his gang, NCT, has people moving in on their area, the fight for power starts to get heavy.idk what im saying - and sorry for the lame namingBOSS AU - RIVAL GANGS





	1. Intro: Neo Got My Back

**Author's Note:**

> helllllloooo I HAVE BEEN HOLDING ONTO THIS SINCE BOSS FIRST CAME OUT AND WAS TRYING TO CMPLETE IT ALL IN ONE GO BUT NAH, BUT IM STILL OBSESSED W THAT MUSIC VIDEO, SO WE PERSEVERE. 
> 
> basically this is my take on the boss mv, especially when Mark and Taeyong run at each other, and i lived it so much i thought i should have a little fun with it... (plus GO by NCT Dream.. a little bit... Later on... i loved that one too so much)
> 
> this is all kinda random and alot of it will be kinda Kun centric bc ive been strved of my baby (sorry yalls) but yeah!!!

Taeyong examined the files piled up in front of him, careful to not disrupt the carefully arranged order. The small lamp that he had left on the corner of his desk flickered slightly, allowing little light to grace the space, flashing dark shadows across the walls and into the black windows. He tried his best to concentrate, knowing that it was crucial for their next moves, but he couldn’t when he knew that tonight there was a kill on the line. He heard a soft click. The door that led into the hallway had been left unlocked and Taeyong wasn’t taking any chances. Softly as he could he slid open the desk draw, carefully hidden in the woodworks and took out his gun, feeling the weight of the bullets inside. He rested the gun in his lap, slowly flicking back the safety, careful not to make a sound. The door continued to creak. Taeyong stared at the slit under the door eying carefully to check for shadows cast oddly into the hall. He couldn’t see any feet. But he could hear them. The creaking started again, less steady now, not like a door being blown like the wind, more like someone trying to skirt along the side of the hall to stop the old floor boards creaking. Taeyong scoffed. He knew that wouldn’t work. 

Slowly he pulled the gun from his lap and rest his elbow on the corner of his desk, holding the gun aimed at the door. He hadn’t put his finger against the trigger yet, careful to watch the door. He had told them to remove all evidence off themselves, but you could never be too careful. Suddenly the door flung wide open but Taeyong didn’t even blink, eyes trained on the dark gloomy space in front of him. 

“Taeyong hyung. Lower it,” a deep voice said, emanating through the hall. Taeyong smirked in recognition but only put the safety back on, not bothering to lower it yet. Yuta walked into the doorway eyes bright until he saw the gun pointed at him, ducking to the floor at an astonishing rate. Taeyong rolled his eyes as Jaehyun stepped over Yuta, still flat on the ground and waited for Taeyong to slide his gun back into his desk before speaking.

“How did it go?” Taeyong asked when he was done, looking directly at Yuta as he slowly rolled onto his back, still staring daggers at the other. “Did you get everything done?”

Jaehyun hummed while Yuta shelled off the brief case he had been holding and placed it on Taeyongs desk. “Yuta got me up without anyone noticing and was able to clean everything up efficiently even without Taeil’s help. It probably won’t be discovered until at minimum, Saturday.”

Yuta nodded in agreement, pushing his hair from his face as he concentrated on unlocking his case. When he finally got it, he made a satisfied sound and opened it up to display the case full of little golden Lego blocks. Taeyong picked up a few of them and rolled them in his palm, smiling at the pair and nodding when he was done.

“He was definitely the one she was asking for?”

“Yep, couldn’t be anything else,” Yuta smiled, locking the case again. “Besides no one else would have dozens of sprayed gold building blocks in a brief case. I can’t believe the gall of that man, so fucking heartless,”

Jaehyun nodded in agreement, “everything went well, as far as we know, it was a clean shot, no glass broken either. Yuta got the body and the blocks out quickly and unseen, even though I don’t know why he wore that ridiculous uniform.”

Yuta gasped at the other, feigning offence, “I will let you know, I looked stunning and that they only had skirted cleaning uniforms thank you very much,”

Taeyong sighed pressing his palms against his temples, knowing that the pair had now gone back to their regular rumbustious selves after the rush of their mission. “What matters is that that man’s now gone now. May I ask where?” 

“He’s in one of the plots that Johnny had already prepared in a cemetery a long way away. They won’t find him,” 

“Good, you did well, make sure you rest up, take the day off tomorrow, okay?”

Both nodded like obedient children, sneaky smiles gracing their faces as they waved Taeyong off, gladly heading back into the dark hallway and down to their own rooms. Taeyong watched them go until he could no longer see them, instead changing his focus to the brief case in front of him. He’d get Win Win to drop it off tomorrow before his shift, he though, pulling the heavy case towards himself, finally closing and stacking away the multiple folders on his desk. Tiredly, he got out his key and locked the draw. 

‘Please don’t let daddy come back, he hasn’t been nice since forever. If you want, you can have some of my special building blocks, the heavy ones. Please help me?’

Taeyong clearly remembered the words of the little girls note when he peered into the case of toy building blocks, all similar in size and color. He picked one out of the lot, felt it carefully and peered close before digging his nail into the soft material. He smiled slightly before grabbing just one more and leaving the few other ones just like it in the case, sure that what he had taken was more than ample. He closed the case again and opened the safe hidden in the back room, locking the case in before turning off the few lights he had had on, deciding that it was time for rest. 

|

Jaehyun got up first, as per usual and did his stretches in the dark, not wanting to turn on the lights and wake up Doyoung. 5 hours of sleep. The norm. He only needed the five, as long as he kept his schedule, changing into a set of running clothes that he was prepared to get drenched in sweat and tied up his shoes before heading out of the ancient house to run his usual route. He concentrated on the steady thrum humming through him as he ran, the sting in his lung as his feet thumped against the hard pavement. He stopped in the middle of a nearby park at some point to stop and drink and watched as the sky started to change into day. Jaehyun decided he’d been running long enough and started walking to one of the nearby streets bordering the park, taking his pick of the few open cafes. He quickly decided on one of his usual ones where he liked the brownies and strong iced americanos. He pushed open the door, careful to also push away his sweaty bangs from his face before ordering his desired food at the little counter. He made his way over to one of the open tables in the obscured corner of the café, mostly out of habit so he would watch the entire café and its inhabitants move in their own little worlds. 

There was a lady talking into the headphones of her phone, waiting absentmindedly until the barrister handed her her coffee, allowing her to head back out into the early morning, heels clacking softly. The two baristas were busy and there was a teenager on his laptop, definitely siphoning off the free wifi and finally one other young man going up to the counter to collect his drink and food. He caught Jaehyun’s attention as soon as he stood up, Jaehyun noting his tall stature, probably taller than himself. He had a handsome face and large eyes that were exactly someone he knew’s type. He smiled to himself and watched as the other man slid back into his seat, one of the small booths near the other corner, where most of him was obscured, save the top of his slightly dyed hair. Quickly he pulled out his phone and scrolled through his photos until he found one of his friend smiling, usually black hair dyed silver. 

“Jaemin,” the barista called out from behind the counter interrupting Jaehyun just as he was about to select another photo. Oh well, coffee was worth it. Like usual he had chosen some random name and smiled at the girl who handed him his coffee before turning to find the man he had been looking at before staring at him intently, shoulders tense. Jaehyun smiled at him and walked over with an easy casualness. He slid in across from the other man and put down his food.

“Hi,”

“Hello,” the other man said cautiously, eyebrows furrowed as if he wasn’t sure what Jaehyun was doing there.

“I’m sorry that I just sat down so abruptly, I’m Jaehyun by the way, despite what the lady said. Don’t like using my actual name for these types of things,”

At the mention of this the other man relaxed visibly, large smile blooming across his face. “Sorry, I’ve just got a friend with that name, thought he had found my hiding spot,” he laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. 

“Oh, sorry about that,” Jaehyun offered, “I just came over to ask if I could get your number?”

The guy looked immensely taken back at the request, and kept opening and closing his mouth with only a low, sceptical “ahhhhh…..” coming out. 

“Don’t worry, it’s not for myself, I can tell you don’t like me, plus I’ve got a boyfriend. But you’re exactly my friends type,” Jaehyun announced, quickly unlocking his phone to show the other the nicest photo he could find of Jungwoo, smiling widely, puppy eyes looking directly into the camera. 

The other stared for a moment, eyes wide and mouth open. “Wow okay I wasn’t expecting to be assaulted today,” he said, feeling around his pocket to presumably grab his phone, only glancing away from the photo once. Jaehyun watched carefully as the man grabbed his phone out of his pocket and managed to fiddle until he got the pass code right. 

“My names Lucas, so you know,” the man offered as he let Jaehyun copy down his number. “Please let your friend know he can text whenever,”

Jaehyun fiddled in the number Lucas had given him, “His name is Jungwoo, just so you know.” Jaehyun could hear the other not so subtly mouthing the name over and over again, allowing him to barely suppress a huge smile from forming on his lips. “Can I get a photo to show I’m not just playing a joke? I did once and now he never believes me,” Jaehyun started, pulling at the ends of his hair as he offered over his phone to Lucas, watching as the other posed for a selfie. 

“Here you go,” Lucas offered his phone back, smiling up at Jaehyun when he said he needed to get going, shoving his brownie into his mouth and grabbing his coffee, ready to head off again. “Good meeting you!”

Jaehyun waved back and made his way around the corner. This morning had been very successful, he thought to himself, chewing on his brownie and taking sips of his Americano. He couldn’t wait to show Jungwoo and get the other out of his tiny covered in dust room. Seriously, the rest of them at least went out when they weren’t on duty or had shifts, but with the lack of shifts Jungwoo managed to stay inside almost all the time. Jaehyun had been walking some time when he took his last sip of coffee, dumping the plastic cup in the nearest bin. He had only five minutes of walking left to the house and decided he was too lazy to jog it, as per usual. As the old house came into sight, grey walls a strange color when compared to the dark wood window sills that lacked any form of shine. There was only this once main house for almost the lot of them, with only Johnny and Taeil living separate. Jaehyun checked the mail box and found three envelopes, two with bills and the other hand written in neat accents. He ignored the first two, which were solely addressed to Taeyong and started pulling open the third.

For the five – Thanks for the reliable work.

Jaehyun nodded as he read the note, tipping out the envelope to check the three stacks of bills inside. He checked it over a few times to see that the amount that they had asked for the five boxes of fire arms was what had been given over. Granted he couldn’t count the money as easy as Jungwoo, but he was getting better. He pushed off his shoes at the door and made his way down the carpeted hall to where he knew Jungwoo practically lived. Jaehyun didn’t bother knocking as he pushed into the dark room, the person at the laptop still tapping away. 

“You know one day Taeyong may actually send you out, Doyoung’s getting restless so it’ll probably be soon,” Jaehyun offered into the darkness, only getting a small laugh in response. He moved closer. Jungwoo was still mostly focussed on the screen filled with numbers so Jaehyun decided to losed the door again and take a seat. “Come on, you should rest, this isn’t even your main job and you take it so seriously,” 

Jungwoo turned to him, tired eye smile slightly obscured by glasses. “I know I’m probably going to go out soon, that’s why I need to get as much done as I can, and soon,”

“Don’t worry about it, focus on your actual work,” Jaehyun offered, laying the coils of money on the desk. “After all, you were born for surveillance, not accounting,” 

Jungwoo laughed at that as he quickly flicked the corners of the notes. “Are you sure about that? I can tell you now that this is close to 10,000. See I’m good with the numbers,”

“But I’m sure you could also tell me that I ate at a coffee shop and had an espresso in store,”

“Nope,”

“No?” Jaehyun asked smile threatening to bring the corners of his mouth up.

“No if you had had an espresso you would have run back and be covered in sweat, you had something to go. Hmm… How long did you stay in the café after your food came?” Jungwoo asked mindlessly.

“About 10 minutes,”

“Okay then I didn’t know what you had to drink. Did you talk to someone?”

“Yes,” Jungwoo’s eyebrows shooting behind his hair line.

“See I don’t even know how you got there,” Jaehyun laughed, “Not anyone can just do that,”

“Well if you had gotten a hot drink it would have taken you longer to start drinking, since you don’t deal well with hot stuff. But since you stayed in a while it would have given it time to cool down. Now usually when you go running you listen to music, so the fact that you don’t have headphones in now and your headphones haven’t been stuffed in haphazardly tells me got your phone out at some point and took out your head phones for some reason. If you had been online you wouldn’t have taken out your headphones, I know how you like those puppy videos. So, you must’ve talked to someone, and subsequently mulled over the conversation to a point that you forgot to put your headphones back in.”

“See, better at surveillance, always notice the important things,” Jaehyun said smugly, proud that he had beaten the other to the point where Jungwoo was huffing in exasperation.

“But you missed one key point,” Jaehyun said, hand dipping into his pocket for his phone.

“Oh? What did I miss?”

Jaehyun smiled at his phone before turning the screen to Jungwoo. “Him.”


	2. Boss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> LuWoo talk...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry theres not alot here, but I needed to put some form of interaction or i'd die....
> 
> Hope its not too slow!!! Please enjoy (or try to V(=^･ω･^=)v)

Jungwoo could not believe his eyes. The man in the photograph was unbelievably handsome, large eyes and gorgeous hair and a sharper that a knife jawline. “Wow.” He let out, still fixated on the stranger, eyes darting around his face to find any trace of who he was. 

“Yes, and he wants you to text him,” Jaehyun said, pulling his phone back to find the number, “So give me your phone,”

“Wha- what do you mean he wants to text me?! What did you do to convince someone like that to actually want to text me?!” Jungwoo squawked, pulling his phone away for Jaehyun when the other tried to make a grab for it.

“I just showed him your photo,” Jaehyun snickered, quickly grabbing Jungwoos phone while the other was to concentrated on the betrayal.

“His names Lucas and he said you can text him whenever you want,” Jaehyun got up and left grabbing the money on his way out leaving a shocked Jungwoo. Jungwoo stayed in his ‘attacked’ position for about a minute before he braved a look away from his accounting spread sheets and focussed on the name above the empty chat.

He sucked in a breath. You better be worth it Lucas,

*Jungwoo: Hi…

?: Are u Jungwoo?

Jungwoo: r u Lucas???

Lucas: Yes?

Jungwoo: Then Im Jungwoo ^v^

Lucas: Oh good ur hella cute didn’t want to miss the chance even if I was leaving my number with a stranger…*

When Jungwoo finally emerged from his cave there was a broad smile covering his face and a deep blush that his glasses couldn’t hide. Everyone was already in the kitchen save Jaehyun and Yuta by the time Jungwoo had come out and therefore none of them had any problem teasing the hell out of how bright his face was, Doyoung especially.

“Why do you look like a horse radish?” was the first thing Doyoung let from his mouth, earning him a pouting Jungwoo. 

“Leave him alone Doyoung,” Kun said, paying more attention to the toaster than anything the other was actually saying.

“Yes, leave him alone Doyoung, we have to discuss what I’m going to do with the two of you anyway,” Taeyong offered from his corner of the table where he was checking over his mail. “I think you two are going to have to work today. I’ve just received a notice and Johnny has also informed me that there may be others moving in.”

Even Kun turned at that. 

“What motivations do they have?” Jungwoo asked finally slipping his phone into his pocket to put his full attention on the other.

“I don’t honestly know and right now it’s all pretty vague, I sent Win Win out this morning when he was doing some errands and even he couldn’t find anything weird around town.”

“Well we should find out soon,” Kun finally said as he grabbed his piece of toast, pat Taeyong’s head and headed out the door, yelling a goodbye. 

Taeyong sighed. “Alright, in a fortnight the pair of you are going to go to need to go on surveillance. We do have a lead, but it’s weak, so for now we’ll keep on as normal.”

Jungwoo nodded, internally agreeing that that would probably be for the best. 

|

It had been nearly three years since Taeyong had offered him a job at his bar and Jungwoo had subsequently joined the gang, or more like it - organised hit group. At the time Jungwoo had just been trying to figure out where he wanted to go with no guidance, no steady place to stay but a lot of skill. He remembered staying late at the library because he didn’t have work that day and he didn’t think it would be safe to go home when Taeyong approached him. 

“I’ve seen you, and I’ve seen the way you take stuff in,” Taeyong offered smiling. “I can give you a job with almost double the pay you’ve currently got and a place to stay?”

“What will it cost me?” Jungwoo asked, sceptical of such a good offered to him, someone with zero qualifications.

“Nothing, if you’re tough, but everything if you’re not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow that was pretty lame (hope it was okay sice this is lowkey a filler chapter sorry)
> 
> Feel free to talk about this atrocity w me in the comments or leave kudos!! <3<3


	3. Baby Don't Stop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are starting to move foward, but they have no where to go...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DEEPLY APPOLOGISE FOR MY CHAPER SUMMARIES THEY ARE TRASH
> 
> AND IM SORRY THAT THE TITLES DONT MATCH AT ALL SORRY GUYS BUT IVE GOT A THEME I PROMISE.... THANK YOU FOR BOTHERING TO READ THIS TRASH I AM SO TIRED RN AND IVE GONE A LITTLE CRAZY THANK YOU FOR OTOLERATING ME

“- yes, please I’ve been dying to try that new Chinese restaurant that’s in town, one of my friends is Chinese and he keeps going on about the need for good authentic Chinese food,” Jungwoo smiled as he walked around the house, holding his phone in his hand and talking into his head phones.

“Oh yes it makes all the difference we need to go try!” Lucas almost yelled on the other side in a way that made Jungwoo laugh. 

“When are you free? I’m fine with most days,”

“mm how about Thursday? I need to work almost all-day Monday so I won’t recover until then,”

Jungwoo hummed in sympathy until Doyoung pulled out one of his headphones and gestured to go to the kitchen. 

“Ah sorry, I have to go now, talk to you soon?”

“Yeah of course, I’ll call when I’m missing you,”

Jungwoo cringed but his smile just grew wider. “You’re so cringey,”

“You know it!” Lucas laughed heartily before offering a finally goodbye.

Jungwoo made his way to the kitchen where Win win, Yuta and Taeyong were sitting at the table talking and Jaehyun and Doyoung were cuddling on the couch. 

“Win Win found something,” Taeyong offered when Jungwoo took a seat, all eyes moving to the other. 

“I was working at the bar since we haven’t had a need for cover ups or what not in a while and two men came in, carrying Glocks and matching rings, both with symbols. They clearly didn’t care that this was known territory, but I didn’t want to make myself known. They both ordered and left, but that wasn’t the strange bit. When they both ordered, their glasses came back covered in blood, but no prints.”

Everyone but Taeyong stared hard at Win win, surprised at the strangeness of the story. “The blood wouldn’t be important under normal circumstances, of course we would follow it through and do what was necessary, but what concerns me is that they were in a gang and had guns and blood on their hands. That never leads to good.”

“So, what are we going to do about it? You postponed Doyoung hyung’s and my rounds because you wanted us to start on the lady exploiting her workers. We were going to start tomorrow, so would you want us to switch back?”

Taeyong thought over it a moment, before slowly starting to shake his head. “I think its best you both stay on that, we need you two to figure out what’s best to do. For now, Sicheng can stay at the bar and we can get Taeil and Jaehyun try and look around for them.” 

They all nodded in silent agreement, the worry starting to pool, stagnant in the air.


	4. GO

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kun and Johnny (plus some others) in the hopsital.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello!!! thank you for bothering to get this far, hopefully this chapter is a bit better than the last. as always thanks for reading and feel free to comment and leave kudos for me to procrastinate over

Kun had gotten the late shift at his hospital the night before. Usually he hated the late shift since it went till six in the morning, but he had woken up late that day and was glad for the extra sleep in. Johnny had the same shift as him, almost always did and drove him to the hospital where Johnny nursed and Kun was a paediatric anaesthetist. Kun examined his chemical blotched hands from a faint memory of his teenage years where he used to try and make the most dangerous thing he possibly could without minding the safety hazards. He compared his hands to Johnny’s own clean ones, lacking in the patchiness. Johnny seemed to notice how quiet Kun was being because he started talking more than usual.

“How’s the house? Or better yet how’s staying with everyone in it?” Johnny chuckled.

Kun sighed fondly when he thought over his house mates, “Doyoung and Jaehyun are the same, as always, Sicheng and Taeyong are always up and Yuta is just… well, he’s Yuta,”

“So loud?” Johnny laughed, keeping his eyes on the car in front of them. 

“Yup, but he always plays good music when he trains, so I can’t really complain.”

“So it sounds like everything’s going pretty decent. You’re not getting too bored are you?”

“No never. They let me figure out my compounds and improve them whenever I want so I never really get bored,” Kun mentioned absent mindedly, looking over his hands again for open wounds, gladly finding none. 

“That’s good. We’re here now, just let me find a park and we can head in.” Kun smiled, knowing that it would take Johnny at least ten minutes to find a park for his giant car. 

|

“How are you feeling tonight Sooyeon?” Kun asked, kneeling down to the the little girls bedside to smile at her.

“Goood,” the girl said, dragging on the word a bit as she fidgeted on the bed. 

“That’s very good Sooyeon. My names Doctor Qian, I’m going to help you prepare for your operation!” Kun said as brightly as he could, happy when he saw the girl smile. 

“My job is to make sure when they make you feel better that you’re asleep, so when you wake up you feel all fresh, like a flower,” The little girl giggled as Kun talked, watching as he checked the needle on the IV bag. “Your doctor Lee over there is going to look after you during your surgery, but first you have to be very brave so I can put you to sleep, okay?”

The girl nodded and held her breath when Kun injected the IV. “You’ve been very brave Sooyeon, now can you count to ten for me?” Kun asked, watching as the girl’s eyelids started to droop.

“one, two, three, fouuurrrr…” Kun smiled softly and finished taping down the tube to the girl’s arm and moved out of the way to allow the surgeons to do their work. He stayed in the background, paying attention to her vitals and temperature, making sure that the anaesthetic was still being administered and administering blood when it was needed. The surgery went smoothly, and the girl was most likely going to be unconscious for another 2 or so hours, leaving Kun to do his general rounds. He had only just left when he heard Johnny’s loud voice booming through the hospital and the sirens of an ambulance following close behind.

“Gun shot wound to the abdomen, he’s going into shock, 70/60 BPM,” Kun ran over to find Johnny wheeling a kid on a gurney with at least three other people trailing behind.

“Who is his guardian?!” Kun yelled out, quickly grabbing the man who turned towards him trying to make sure he wasn’t separated from the gurney. 

The other was short, and panicking, eyes filled with unshed tears. “What blood type is he?” Kun asked quickly, walking with the man at a reasonable pace to make sure he didn’t crash into anything.

“A,” the other gasp out raspily,

“Okay, okay, that’s good, im going to need you to calm down, we just want to help. Is he allergic to any known anaesthetics?” 

“No,” the other stuttered, still trying to move further forward even when Kun had slowed. “Please, he needs to be alright,”

“And he will be, we just need to do our jobs,” Kun said patting the others shoulder while one of the nurses came over and took the man allowing Kun to quickly steralise himself and make his way into the operation room, immediately going to the stock room. “He’s type A,” he said to the nurses, handing them the bag to connect. 

“He’s in shock,” Johnny said and try to stop the bleeding, “we need to identify where the bullet is,”

“Has any anesthetic been administered yet?” Kun asked, looking at the surgeon.

“No, we were waiting for your recommended dose,” Johnny said, still concentrated.

Kun quickly checked the chart, just to make sure nothing had been administered by the EMTs and got to work slowly adding ketamine to the IV. While everyone worked on the bullet wound and tried to stop the bleeding Kun monitored the boys breathing, checking that his heart rate wasn’t dropping too low. When they managed to pull out the bullet out Kun thought they might lose him since he was still losing blood, but luckily, they sealed the wound quick enough to slow the bleeding. By the time they got out of the operating room it was almost five in the morning, Kun stayed with the boy, keeping check of his vitals and making sure that the anaesthetic administered hadn’t induced any delayed side effects. He could hear Johnny talking outside to the boy’s guardian.

“Your relative was shot, sir” Johnny said, voice tense. “I understand you are feeling nervous, but we have his condition stabilised. Now we just need to know how he got in this position to begin with.”

“We were just walking, and then, and then he was gone,” the man said, looking up at Johnny with a burdened gaze. Finally, the man sighed deeply, and sat down on one of the nearby seats, Johnny following close behind. 

“Sir, the authorities will come to talk to you. Please try and help them so they can find the person who did this. Your child, or relative could have been severely injured. Ill leave you be for now,”

Johnny left the other, wondering how the man could possibly just let a child, a child, be shot. He wondered around mostly aimlessly, just helping anyone who asked for it before his and Kun’s shift ended, allowing them to finally leave.


	5. Touch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kun fills them in on the previous night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI I DIDNT UPDATE YESTERDAY IM SORRY IF ANYONE ACTUALLY BOTHERS TO READ THIS UGH I NEED SLEEP - anyways, thanks for reading! Love yalls alot and hope this is okay, im honestly only deciding to go back to my responsibilities now, so if i dont finish this story tomorrow my updates are probably gonna get really hectic (-_-TT) sorry... BUT ANYWAYS thank you for reading! hope you enjoy, and feel free to chat! yell at me for not updating and remind me to actually update!!!<3<3

Kun waved good bye to Johnny as the others car rolled away, opening the door without much care. Everyone was sitting in the kitchen and Taeyong was going over what Jungwoo and Doyoung were supposed to be doing tomorrow. 

“-we need at least one of you to get inside to see what type of woman she is, what her habits are and what her work space is. The other needs to look around and possibly talk to those around her so that Taeil can easily slip in the botulinum that Kun made up before. It was one of her subordinates, possibly a few of them that hired us, but we are to stay anonymous, we don’t know who to trust. Finally, we want both of you to be there when its clean up since we need Win Win at the bar and we can’t let Taeil get caught,”

All of them nodded, even Yuta, who even though it was barely 7 in the morning looked ready to go back to sleep.

“Why isn’t Win Win going?” Kun asked, knowing that Win Win always went during clean up, he was the only reason they had gotten out of half the conundrums they had been.

Taeyong turned to Kun, slowly moving away from his perch by the door. None of them were surprised by Kuns entry, but Jungwoo did look a little suspicious, quickly glancing at his phone before smiling up at him.

“Win Win was doing bar duty last night and two men walked in with guns and blood on their hands, we think they were gang affiliated,”

Kun mulled it over for a second, why would they go onto known gang territory? “Are we sure they were in a rival gang? I didn’t think there was anything like that around here?”

Win Win answered now, nodding quickly, “yeah they definitely were, there was no serial number on one of their guns, probably the same as the other. Plus, they had matching rings. And it did not look like a couple’s thing,”

Kun was going to let it go, to just let everyone else sort it out and grab some coffee, when suddenly a chill ran over him. There had been pain in his feet from standing for so damn long and his head had been a little foggy with weariness but suddenly he had gone numb, he couldn’t feel any of it.

“What sort of guns did they have?” He asked, voice as calm as he could get it, staring directly into Sicheng’s eyes. 

“mm… Glock 17. Why?”

“Does it take 9x19 cartridges?”

“Yeah it definitely does,” Jaehyun answered, both his and Yuta’s interest again spiked. 

“Johnny was talking about it on the way back…” Kun mumbled to himself before straightening up and looking around the room, the others all waiting for him to speak. “During my shift, around 3, a kid came in, he’d been shot,” 

He could hear Jungwoo gasp in the corner and could see Taeyong’s eyes visibly widen. “He looked to be barely a teenager, but he could have easily died, they shot him in the back. Johnny said something about 9x19 ammo, your guns match that,” Kun said motioning to Win win, “and I haven’t heard of any other shootings going to the main hospital,”

“Heartless bastards”, Yuta growled, face riveted into a deep scowl. “How the fuck can they shoot a child?”

“We’re keeping tabs on them, and Johnny and Kun are both in the hospital, we will find out what’s happening. And I agree, we can’t just let it slip by now,” Taeyong offered, his own face twisted into an expression of deep anger. “For now though, we all have what we need to do, and we should get on with it. Kun, see if you can get a shift tonight as well, we need you to keep an eye on the child, make sure he’s safe. They may try come for him again.” Kun nodded in understanding before heading back to his room, flicking a quick email for timetable changes before drooping into sleep in his chair.


	6. YESTODAY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The shot boy wakes up
> 
> (plus some Dojae)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello hi! I said i was going to update sooner im sorry but random stuff got in the way so yeah but heres some of it now - hope you enjoy ? did yalls exepect this? and please feel free to leave kudos and come talk to me in the comments! i know its going slow but id love to know what you thinks gonna happen next ~_^

Jaehyun helped Doyoung pack up the few items he was going to take with him; suit, lighter, cash and his make up kits. He didn’t really need to help, but they always went around like this before a mission, trying to spend as much time together as they possibly could. Doyoung had complained the entire way though, firm that he could do to himself, even though he knew Jaehyun wouldn’t let it go. When they were done Doyoung started wondering around his room, just moving back and forth, pretending like he was missing something.

“Come hug me,” Jaehyun said sleepily, diving head first onto the bed in an attempt to get his boyfriend to join him. 

Doyoung shook his head. “aren’t you supposed to be doing work?” he asked in an accusatory tone.

“No, just come here,” Jaehyun offered, reluctantly pulling himself off the bed to grad Doyoung. Doyoung didn’t even bother to try and stop him, instead flopping down onto the sheets wrapped in Jaehyun’s warm arms. 

Doyoung curled himself into Jaehyun wrapping his arms around the others waist and closing his eyes just to breath in that smell of too much fabric softer. “Taeyong’s going to kill us,” Doyoung whispered into the others shirt.

“You’re leaving me for a week minimum, I think he can afford me the luxury of one last day,”

Doyoung hummed in reply, no longer caring about anything but being swaddled in Jaehyun’s warm embrace.

|

Kun wasn’t happy to get the late shift again, especially since it meant not getting to get a lift with Johnny. Instead he tried to ignore the fact that he was on the last bus to the hospital and could no longer turn back around. He dumped the last of his coffee into the bin just outside the entrance and made his way to his wing, nodding and smiling as he passed any of the nurses. First, he checked on Sooyeon, greeting her parents as he walked over to her. She had improved vastly he noted, feeling sorry that he hadn’t been there when she woke up. 

“She should be allowed out tomorrow morning, depends on how she keeps on improving, but as of now she seems to be doing well. It was good of both of you to stay so late, and Sooyeon looks a lot happier with both of you here,” he smiled, waving at the girl. Her parents nodded and thanked him, leaving him to do his rounds, since there were no prepared surgeries today.

Most of the children were sleeping, but a few were having problems with their breathing that he was asked to check on, and a few parents were staying late, and asked when their kids could go home. Finally, he walked down the mostly quiet hall, punctuated with melodic snoring. 

He quietly opened the door to the kid’s room, the one who had been shot just yesterday. He glanced up at the monitors surrounding the boy, checking that all of his vitals were fine and that his blood pressure hadn’t dropped to low, and thankfully he was doing alright. He sat down for a moment, thankful for the short rest this trip had provided him. Kun closed his eyes for a moment before sweeping his hair back, standing up to get ready to go again. The room was dark still but when he stood up he could clearly see the boy clenching his hand up, barely stopping himself from pulling off the oximeter. Kun quickly got out his note pad, ready to start writing down if the boy started talking, since most of what had happened the other night was still a mystery, the boys guardian hadn’t returned since the incident. Usually doing this wasn’t Kuns job, but he thought he could make an exception.

“Sorry…” the boy whispered raspily, taking in a deep breath after. Kun took a moment to realize he hadn’t spoken in Korean, but Mandarin. He wrote it down.

“How are you feeling?” Kun asked still in Mandarin.

The boy didn’t respond for a second before he slowly opened his eyes, blinking against the bar of light that was flowing in between the door and the wall.

“Strange,” he finally answered making attempts to shift from his side onto his back that prompted Kun to move forward and keep him where he was.

“I’m sorry, right now you shouldn’t be on your back, we don’t want to agitate the wound,”

The boy seemed to understand and didn’t fidget around anymore but stayed quiet. 

“Do you know what happened?” Kun asked in the silence, not sure if the boy would be coaxed for answers. 

“mmm… I was walking, with Ten ge, then it hurt… from there, I can only remember someone yelling, and loud noises,” 

Kun nodded, writing down what the boy had said. “Your Ten ge, is he your brother, or your relative?” 

The boy shook his head. “No, he looks after me.”

“What’s your name?”

“… Yixing,” Kun smiled at that, scribbling something out on the paper that wasn’t that important before looking back up to the boy, watching as he glanced away.

“Your real name please? I know that one isn’t what your called,” Kun had seen it too many times before, people lying about their name was nothing new. 

“I don’t know if I’m allowed to tell you, you may try and hurt me,” he said, looking straight back at Kun now, brows slightly furrowed and mouth turned into a pout. 

“Do you know who shot you?” Kun asked, his interest piquing.

“No.” Kun could tell it was a lie, but there was no point in pushing it. 

“Okay. Still, I need your name. We may need to check your medical record,” 

“Chenle, I’m Zhong Chenle,” 

Kun smiled, quickly writing it down. “Okay, well, I do have some more questions to ask but I can save them for your guardian. For now, I’ll just try and ask the stuff we need to know now.”

“Do you have a way to contact your guardian to tell him you’re awake?”

Chenle shook his head. 

“Do you have any allergies, medically or food wise?” 

Again. he shook his head.

“Okay, so all of that seems good. You may take some time to heal, we’ll try and keep you for about a week to keep the chance of infection down, and to let you get better, okay?”

Chenle nodded his head as best he could, dark black hair falling into his eyes and blending into the dark of the room. 

Kun smiled softly, reaching out his hand to push the boy’s hair back, noticing the way he flinched slightly at the touch. He took his leave, letting Chenle sleep in peace, hoping that the boy’s guardian, Ten, would come back soon.

Kun closed the door slowly, hearing the little click of the handle falling back into place. He sighed deeply, drowsiness stacking on his shoulders and pulling his eyes shut. He didn’t like that a child, a child with a gunshot wound, was flinching away from help. As soon as Ten came, he would be sure to talk to him. He walked away from Chenle’s room, continuing on his proper rounds, even though most of the patients were sleeping, and there was no reason for him to do this. But he needed something to keep his mind off what was going on. 

Kun had been wondering around for a bit, there wasn’t really anyone to talk to at 1 in the morning so he just kept on walking around the paediatric wing, only stopping to go to the entry way to grab coffee. He sat down in the waiting area while bean water that couldn’t honestly be called coffee tried to squeeze its way out of the machine. The coffee here was abysmal, but Kun needed to live. 

The fake almost sickening glow of the fluorescent lights lit up the room dimly as Kun waited, he rubbed his hands across his face a few times, feeling the rough scars running over his eyes. He freed his eyes from his hands and back out into the dingy hall. The machine was spluttering to a finish, so he leaned over to grab his cup, taking a sip, wrinkling his nose at the taste. Kun stood up slowly, walking slowly around, mostly just in an attempt not to go stiff. He watched out the large glass doors into the quiet street, no ambulances coming in tonight, not yet anyway.

There was a flash of lightness going across the corner of the street, and Kun squinted to see better, inching forward instinctively. There was a short man, dyed and tightly cropped hair – vaguely familiar – Ten, Kun thought, eyes widening at the sight of the other, dropping his coffee in a nearby bin in an effort to quickly grab the other before he vanished in a puff of smoke. The only thing that stopped him from running to the other was the quick glints of metal at him hip as he walked. Again, Kun squinted. Ten had about five or so knives tucked into his waist band, and to most people they would have been concealed by his drooping shirt, but Kun had gotten used to that. Kun pulled himself from the initial startle and pushed the heavy glass doors open to run down the footpath, watching as Ten had an arm around Chenle, supporting him, and lead him towards a black open doored van. 

“Wait!” Kun shouted out, as he ran, making him slightly more winded than he would have liked.

Ten ignored him, but Chenle flinched at the noise. 

“Please wait! Just one second!” Kun ran in front of them, slightly blocking their direct path into the van. Ten scowled at him slightly, and pulled Chenle closer to him, probably instinctively. 

“I’m sorry, but what are you doing here?” Ten asked, crisp green eyes – were they contacts? – staring Kun down, as the doctor tried to look as imposing as possible.

“This boy, Chenle, he’s my patient, please as his guardian could you at least sit down to talk this through? I think it would be better for him here, with proper care,”

Ten scoffed slightly, continuing to pin Kun down with his eyes. “As his guardian, you know that I can decide what I think is best for him,”

“Yes,” Kun agreed begrudgingly, “but I also know, I can have the state investigate you if I think you are putting him in harm. This is my job, I’m his anaesthesiologist, please just listen a second,”

Ten turned to look at Chenle who looked from him to Kun before saying something Kun didn’t understand, maybe in English, Kun didn’t know.

Ten did the same for a second, before posing a question to Chenle, who just nodded in reply. 

“Please be quick,” Ten said curtly hand reaching closer to his waist band. Kun flicked his eyes to Tens free hand, watching carefully as the other grabbed a knife, only hesitating a second, before gripping it more firmly. 

“Please, it would honestly be better for Chenle if he stayed at the hospital, we have all the necessary equipment and trained staff to make sure that he recovers quickly, we also need to monitor him, to keep up his vitals to administer his pain killers, to change his dressings, please, just consider it, for his health,”

Ten paused for a second, supposedly mulling it over. “I can make sure he receives that all at home though. What could you offer me that would make me want to keep him here?”

Kun pressed his mouth into a thin line, mulling it over in his mind. He didn’t want to have to offer this, but the way Ten was gripping his blade made it think it might be worth it. “I- I can offer you safety. Chenle told me that you were just walking and after, after he didn’t know what happened, but by the way your gripping that knife, I don’t think your safe. I can offer you that,” Kun said, lowering his arms jerkily, joints stiff after having forgotten they were being held there for so long. 

Ten pulled his eyebrows together, barely wrinkling up his nose before calling out, again in a language Kun didn’t know, to someone in the van. Soon another boy hopped out of the van and slipped his arm under Chenle’s other arm. The boy had a weary, young looking face and kept his eyes down. Ten turned back to Kun.

“Thank you for your concern, but I don’t think we will need your help.” He walked briskly, opening the driver’s seat door and closing it. the other boy was still helping Chenle in to a comfortable position and was seemingly struggling a little bit. Kun moved closer to help, but the boy stuck out his hand shaking his head, refusing Kuns help. 

“Make sure you change your dressings at least once a day, and avoid showers, but allow the wound time to air, you don’t want it taking longer to seal up,” Kun let out lowly in Mandarin, for Chenle’s ears only. But the boy who had helped him stopped his movements, as did the fidgeting on the other side, concealed in darkness. “Do you speak mandarin?” Kun asked the boy, slightly surprised.

The boy paused for a moment, mouth opening slightly before he shut it again, eyes turned downwards as he shuffled into the van.

Kun watched the van drive off.


	7. Black on Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jungwoo and Lucas finally meet up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YOOoooOOooOOoOOO have yalls seen chain????? I was quaking after I saw that like yes, thank you for Win wins singing it has belessed my ears anyways!! Sorry I havent posted/ updated, this week has been busy... Anyways I hope you enjoy! Comments are always welcome (we can talk about Chain like it gives me life rn) and I hope you enjoy!

It was hard again, going back to the house after the long shift and the entire thing swirling in his head, especially when he missed the bus by a few minutes and had to wait at the stop for another 45, just letting what had happened swirl around in his head. Eventually, he decided to call Taeyong, since after all, he was probably the most reliable person, especially at this time in the morning. 

“Hey hyung, you there?” Kun asked, starting to pace up and down while he waited for a response.

“Yeah Kun, did something happen?”

“Yeah, I thought it would be better to tell you now rather than wait,”

“Okay.” Kun could hear Taeyong shuffling round, undoubtedly moving to the storage room of the bar, the large door of the room clicking shut. “Sorry, I was just closing up, it’s easier to hear here, and Win Win was already in here so,”

Kun could hear Win Win asking who it was before yelling out to Kun, letting him continue talking.

“That kid that I told you about, they had put him on pretty heavy anaesthetics and he slept quite a bit, so he only woke up tonight. So, I spoke to him, and asked him a few questions and that was all fine,”

Taeyong hummed to show he was listening.

“Then at about 2? I think it was 2, I saw his guardian and went over to talk to him, because he had disappeared earlier, mind you his ‘guardian,’” Kun did little air quotes even though he knew neither of the people on the other side of the line could see, “Is in his early twenties, and according to Chenle himself, they’re not related.”

“Do you know how they know each other then? Or how his guardian came into custody of him?”

“No idea. But he was taking the boy out with him, and since he had been recovering for barely two days it’s not really advisable to leave the hospital, especially if you don’t have a trained medical professional to look after you. Either way, I yelled for them, and when I reached them there was at least 2 or so other boys, around the same age in the van.”

“That doesn’t worry me so much, this boy, Chenle you said, could have been a foster child,” Taeyong replied.

“What made you think it could be dangerous for him?” Win Win asked,

“Do you remember those gun men you saw?” Kun asked, rubbing hand over his forehead, listening to the other two hum in confirmation.

“Chenle wasn’t shot point blank, there was no signs that the gun had been held up to his back, it was close, but not that close. So, the gunmen wouldn’t have gotten blood on them unless someone with the boy had either injured them first or had tried to stop the boy from bleeding then attacked the other men, with blood already on him.”

“Ah yes, if he had been shot directly then whoever he was with was probably at gun point too, but that doesn’t make sense, or they would probably both be dead,” Win Win offered, compelling Kun to nod along to the reasoning. 

“His guardian turned up last night with about half a dozen knives on him, not the safest thing, I imagine for this kid to be going back to. There were too many kids, and at least one more understood Mandarin,”

“So, what do you think is happening?” Taeyong asked, voice hard and serious, the way it always got when he didn’t like how things were going.

“Honestly, I don’t really know, but I think somethings going on, and I don’t think those kids are safe.”

There were a few moments only filled with the electric static of the phone before Win Win spoke again. 

“Do you think there’s a chance they’re using child soldiers?” Win Win asked, tone filled with worry, and Kun could just see his lips becoming pursed together in animus. 

“Quite possibly honestly, they’ve already been in a fight against another gang, that wouldn’t have happened and ended up with one of them carrying half a dozen weapons if they weren’t some part of some sort of crime syndicate. Plus, there are children, that never lead to anything good,”

Taeyong spoke up in agreement. “I’m inclined to believe you, Kun. I don’t want this getting out of hand, especially since this is supposed to be our territory. Right now Sicheng is still keeping his eyes out for the other group, and I’ll put Jung woo on it when they finish up. Don’t worry about it, we’ll fix it,” 

With that, he ended the call, leaving Kun just enough time for Kun to flag his bus down. 

|

Jungwoo had been opted for going into the building, applying for a job under a fake name in an effort to learn more about this woman’s habits. Doyoung kept telling him that it was because he was more likeable and was better at it, while Doyoung was supposedly better at staying in the car and planning it out with Taeil, since he didn’t have any skills to actually get him in there, but they all knew that it was because Jungwoo lost that game of scissors paper rock. 

It was lucky they needed accountants. 

The accountants were located on the higher levels of the building, just below where most of the higher ups had their meetings and the lady who ran the whole company’s office was, right up in the top floor. He made his way up and was greeted gruffly by a middle-aged man who led him to his cubicle. 

“We don’t usually give people proper accounts on their first day, but we are running short on employees. You’ll mostly have to do runs though, so don’t snoop into the documents we give you. If something doesn’t balance, you make it balance. That confidentiality agreement you signed wasn’t for nothing, “

Jungwoo nodded obediently, smiling like it didn’t faze him in the slightest. 

“Embezzlement too,” he muttered as he logged onto the computer immediately starting on the files that had been emailed through. He carefully tweaked the documents as he had been told, making the funds supposedly balance out. It was nearly midday before a few dozen files were stacked up on his desk and he was told to “take them up to the top, she’s expecting them now,”

Jungwoo followed his orders, taking the files into the elevator, clicking the highest level and scanning his card, hearing the small ding as the door closed, bringing him up to where he needed to be. The upmost level didn’t have cubicles like the levels below, but instead dozens of large rooms, most with name plates of those who took up the spaces, and a few glass walled meeting rooms. There was a secretary’s desk in the corner, where a man sat, typing slowly at his computer. He had sly cat eyes that scanned Jungwoo over as he placed the files on the top of the high bench. 

“These are from the accounting department?” he said unsurely, just as he meant too, making the secretary quirk an eyebrow at him. The man glanced down at his watch, the back up at Jungwoo. Quickly the man on the other side of the desk picked up the pen and lobbed it an Jungwoo, who, even though he saw it coming, knew it would be best not to catch it. 

The secretary stood up. “You are exactly 2 minutes and 34 seconds late. Don’t let it happen again. Leave the files here with me,” 

Jungwoo nodded and the other man sat back down going back to his computer. Jungwoo started to walk back pulling out his phone in case there was a floor plan around, still slightly shaken up. There usually was one around nearby exits, and he could see a square of blue paper near the door of the elevator. There was a high chance that it was what he was looking for, so he quickly pretended that his phone had received a text, moving the screen closer and further away from his eyes, squinting like he couldn’t see properly, even though truthfully, he was checking to see if the secretary was watching. He wasn’t. Quickly he moved closer, taking a snap shot of the paper, regardless as to its contents, he would check it later. 

He clicked the button for the elevator, pretending to look down and type while he waited, not daring to look back at the paper or the secretary. When the elevator dinged he shuffled in before clicking the down button, giving him time to check over the photo. He felt a sense of pride when the photo came up clear, and exactly of what he wanted it to be of; a floor plan. A grin spread across his face as he sent the picture off the Doyoung, right before the doors opened, letting him back out to what was currently his place of work. 

|

Jungwoo had been working at this ghastly place for nearly a week now, which he thought really wasn’t necessary; they had already located where she worked, what time was optimal for Doyoung, Yuta and Taeil to go in and what they were going to do, but Doyoung insisted Jungwoo stayed just a little bit longer, in an effort not to look suspicious. they had sat for nearly three hours after Jungwoo had gotten back and carefully examined the security pass, before sending a photo to Johnny, who said he could forged them a key card within a week. Jungwoo would have been happy, a quick exit, except that all this had caused him to miss his date with Lucas. He had to go to an ‘important’ meeting for his ‘work’ and was pissed, really pissed at having to miss meeting with the other.

*Jung puppy : im sorry I couldn’t go… Got stuck at work ugh

LB : its alright!!!!11! I know it happens

Jung puppy : do u wanna try another time?

LB : next fri lunch?? I still wanna show u that really good Chinese place

Jung puppy : Okkkyyy sounds good… see u then?

LB : ake sure you txt me before then tho…

Jung puppy : dot worry … I will…

LB : SEE YOU THEN  
SORrry caps  
Goodbye <3<3

Jung puppy : wow that’s cheesy

LB : Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeee <3 *


	8. Timeless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jungwoos date + Yuta

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!!! Im sorry for being so lazy and not posting, I lowkey got hella busy in the last week. anyways half of this was actually supposed t be in the last chapter 

Jungwoo had taken up a nearby flat to his ‘work’ to make it seem more believable that he was actually meant to be there and to avoid all possible contact and connection to the gang or their house. Of course, Doyoung was there with them, but luckily Taeil was able to go home to his own house. He threw the door open and closed it quickly as quick as he could after having texting Lucas on the way back, ready to tell Doyoung he was willing to give up if he wasn’t allowed to be free enough to go on his date. He found Doyoung in the kitchen boiling hot water for his instant ramen, hovering over the cup with the soup packet held absent-mindedly in his hand. 

“Shouldn’t you still be surveying, she doesn’t usually leave until late,” Jungwoo said, putting his phone down on the counter.

“No, she already left today, I tailed her all the way back to her house, and there was no use staying there, I waited until it was well dark and then took down the plates of her cars, her address blah, blah and then left. I had been sitting there for a while and I could see her and some of her neighbours glancing,”

Jungwoo shrugged. “I’m going to go off duty this Friday,” he said, nonchalantly, avoiding the look Doyoung gave him, instead of paying attention to the boiling water. 

“What do you mean, going off duty?”

“I’m going out for lunch, they may fire me for it, but I need to leave anyway, at least a few days before we can do anything,” Jungwoo shrugged, pretending it wasn’t anything important, even though Doyoung could see right through it, could see the way he was bursting at the seams to be allowed out, like a child allowed to get sweets. 

“Okay,” Doyoung was still staring at him with that expression, the one he used on Taeyong when he sent Jaehyun away and he wasn’t allowed to go too; like he couldn’t understand. “I mean either way it’s a good idea to get you out of there, but they wouldn’t just fire you for getting lunch, would they?”

 

“Regularly, probably not,” Jungwoo offered, moving around the other to pour the hot water into Doyoung’s cup. “But right now, I’m supposed to deliver the files upstairs, and get rewarded with stationary thrown at me, two out of three times, no one wants to do that job. So I’m sure if I catch my supervisor on an unfavourable day, then I’ll probably get slapped at least once and then fired, I mean, they’re not exactly kind,”

Doyoung was nodding absent-mindedly in Jung woos peripheral vision, the other continuing to nod, increasing in vigour until he had a bright smile spread across his face, that kind of looked a bit shark like. 

“Yes, that’s probably best then, so definitely go, but on one condition,”

Jungwoo’s shoulders fell into a slouch and he stuck out his bottom lip in an effort to show his exasperation for the now ‘with strings attached’ offer. 

“Who are you meeting?”

Jungwoo was silent for a few moments, not really sure what Doyoung wanted to hear. 

“Oh come on!” The other prompted, throwing his hands up, luckily free of the soup packet. “I know you’re going to go meet someone, I’m not blind, I asked Jaehyun about it but he won’t spill! I need to know, please, it’s been killing me and I can’t even tease you about it because I don’t know what’s going on!” 

Jungwoo lips tilted upwards at the others antics, enjoying the fact that the other was dying to know. He moved away from the decidedly ruined ramen and back to his phone, quickly swiping through his photo gallery until he found the photo he was looking for. He could already feel Doyoung peering over his shoulder a bit, stretching his neck to try and see. 

“If I show you this, you can’t follow me to lunch, okay?” Jungwoo asked, holding the phone defensively close to his chest. 

Doyoung huffed. “Okay,” he sighed.

“And you know I’ll know if you come even close by, my Spidey senses tingle when your nearby,”

“Did you just say Spidey –“

“Yes, I did and I’m not taking it back,” Jungwoo sulked. “Do you want to see or not?”

“Fine, I promise I won’t follow you,” Doyoung said, moving closer hungrily, wanting to get a look at who Jungwoo was meeting. 

Finally, the other flipped over the phone displaying a face of a handsome young man, and Doyoung’s eyebrows shot up under his fringe, looking from the photo to Jungwoo and back. 

“Really? I mean I get it, but he wants to meet with you?” Doyoung asked, disbelief lacing his words. 

Jungwoo looked offended at the words, feigning annoyance at the other, pulling his phone back away. 

“But yes, he is a very good excuse to leave that dreaded place, and I promise I won’t follow you,” Doyoung smiled, curling his arm around Jungwoo’s shoulders, messing with his already disheveled hair. Jungwoo wiggled out, smiling equally wide before drifting off to his bedroom, claiming he wasn’t hungry. Doyoung turned back to his ramen, sighing before dumping the cup out, rifling through the draw to get another cup. He said he wouldn’t follow Jungwoo, but that didn’t stop someone else from doing it.

 

|

By the time Friday rolled around Jungwoo found it challenging to even pretend to be productive. He had been stuck in this stuffy office for longer than he needed to be, and the urge to just run out and never look back was strong. But, he didn’t know where the restaurant was, so he had to wait. Jungwoo shook his head to fix his hair a few times, each time running his fingers through it right after, so that it did almost nothing. He had given up on trying to do any of the work he was given, instead choosing to scroll through his phone a billion times. It was edging on 12 when Lucas texted him, a simple;

*hi! ‘M heading there nw*

Was all it took for Jungwoo to spring out of his chair, shimmying into his coat, because even though it was hot, he couldn’t be bothered carrying it. He slid his chair into place and lined everything on his desk up, making it look immaculate, and on second thoughts grabbing the few personal possessions he had brought with him; one pen and his charger. He was prepared to leave now, barely stopping himself from indignantly running right out. Jungwoo span around as gracefully as he could to leave, only to be face with his supervisor, the greasy middle-aged man boring holes into him from the cubical entrance. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” he growled, and Jungwoo could clearly see the way he was gripping the files in his hands tight. 

“Out,” was all Jungwoo said, ready to walk straight past him, offering a bow in reconciliation. 

The supervisor smashed the files down on top of his head. The dull throb of where they had landed on the back of his skull made Jungwoo clench his teeth, both trying to stop the hurt and to conceal his anger. 

“Out?! OUT?!” the supervisor screamed even as Jungwoo stood upright and started walking off. Everyone was watching now, the feeling of their complacent eyes on him like a wall trapping him to a slim section of safety. “You have one fucking job to do and if you want to keep it, you will get BACK. HERE. NOW!” 

Jungwoo kept walking. He could hear the supervisor’s steps nearing, could feel his spittle on the back of his neck. 

“All you do is deliver a few files a day, you lazy pig, and you can’t even manage that! Should’ve known, none of you fucks can do your damn job right.”  
Jungwoo didn’t bother listening to the man’s words, instead choosing to just, keep, moving, forward. He neared closer to the lifts, and he could still hear the supervisors ragged breaths somewhere behind him. Then the sound of something heavy moving. He may not have done anything about being hit with the files before, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let it happen again. He turned calmly, and with easy catching the files with the hand that wasn’t holding his phone. Some fell on the floor in front of him, but none hit him. The supervisor was glaring at him with bugged eyes, disbelieving that the other had caught the files. 

“I’m sorry, but I just don’t think I am the right fit for the job. You may want to deliver the files up yourself today, they don’t like them there late,” Jungwoo offered, stacking the pieces of paper into as neat of a pile as he could manage before immediately clicking the down button on the elevator. He stayed facing the wall until the elevator tinged softly, letting him in. when he turned to watch the doors close, he could see almost everyone in the nearby radius looking at him in shock, his supervisor still glaring at the files stacked neatly on the floor. Jungwoo stood perfectly still until he reached the ground level, saying a polite hello to the receptionists, one of them greeting back kindly and the other uncouthly ignoring him. He found himself smiling as he the glass doors slid open and he was let out into the sunlight, free to breathe in the fresh air. 

|

Jungwoo approached the sheltered bus stop timidly, looking up and down the street to see if anyone was walking towards it. He sat down on the hard bench, focusing more on his surroundings over the uncomfortable surface he was sitting on. There were a few shops on the opposite side of the road, but on both sides there were mostly office buildings, rising high into the sky. After a few minutes of just looking up and down the street, seeing only a few buses and many cars he gave up on looking, instead choosing to check his phone again, just in case the other had texted that he was close. He was just about to scroll up and down the conversation for the fiftieth time when something dropped onto his shoulder, squeezing slightly. Under normal circumstances, Jungwoo probably would have snapped up at whoever had touched him, but right now he was too afraid too, the thrill spreading across his face in the form a gigantic smile, and the nerves creeping their way into his head, making him just a little bit dizzy.

“Jungwoo?” the voice asked, the deep timbre rattling up Jungwoos insides in a way that wasn’t totally unpleasant. He looked up. There standing beside him, was a man who could best be described as god-like, his chestnut dyed hair a little fluffed up and large eyes peering down at him, matching with the largest grin he had ever seen. 

“Yeah, that’s um, that’s me… wow,” was all Jungwoo could manage as he stood up, smiling even more when the other rocked back and forward on his feet letting out a small sound of excitement. “Sorry, but I mean, you look a lot better in person than in your photos,”

Lucas cawed, arms flailing about in exclamation. “Are you saying I don’t look good in my photos?”

“N-no, I just-“ Jungwoo started at the accusation, hoping that he hadn’t offended the other. Lucas linked his fingers into Jungwoos and started to swing their hands together, big goofy smile back on his face.

“It’s alright, I know what you meant, and I mean, your photo definitely didn’t do you justice either,” Jungwoo was about to rebut it, but instead decided to clamp his mouth shut when the bright twinkle of mischief lit up in Lucas eyes. “Come on, I’m sorry but I am literally starving, shall we go?”

Jungwoo nodded, already fond of the way Lucas swung their arms between them as they talked.

|

“I'm honestly sometimes so scatter brained, I'm sorry I almost walked you into a ditch because I was trying to tell you about the monkeys,” Lucas said, even though he had already apologized a few dozen times for not realising he was walking them straight into a work site. 

“Its alright,” Jungwoo laughed, “either way, im used to staying on my toes, its no trouble,”

Lucas smiled at him and pushed open the door to the restaurant, holding it open so that Jungwoo could walk in first. Lucas greeted the grandma at the counter, smiling at her politely and talking in what Jungwoo was sure was Cantonese. They were lead to a table near the front, so that they could see out into the street and as they talked food started rushing in, hot pot, pork belly, shredded beef, soup dumplings and others filled the table, the heavenly smell making Jungwoo want to drool. 

“I know its lunch, not dinner, but this stuff is too good to pass up,” Lucas said, putting a few pieces of meat into Jungwoos bowl, the other taking it gratefully. 

“I don’t mind, usually I have dinner left over for breakfast anyways so this is great, the meat is so tender, wow,” Jungwoo said as he shoved the pieces in his mouth, savoring the flavour. Lucas laughed in agreement but had already finished over half the plate of shredded beef and was serving himself a large bowl of hotpot. Jungwoo filled up his own bowl, but not nearly at the same pace, amazed at how much food the other was able to eat.

“How are you able to eat so much?” Jungwoo asked watching the other as he proudly scraped the rest of his rice into his mouth. Lucas tilted closer, eyebrows raised and mouth set into a grin. 

“Its my skill,” he said, winking terribly where his left eye closed first but then his right followed, making Jungwoo spill out in a fit of giggles. By the time they had finished, granted with Lucas appetite it was probably only thirty minutes, they both stood up, offering to pay, but Lucas yelled over to the grandma as he walked up to the counter, only to have the money refused to be taken. Lucas walked up after him handing over the cash to the lady, who kept on talking seemingly angrily, but it only made Lucas smile as he handed over a few extra notes and bowed to the grandma, bidding her goodbye. Jungwoo did the same, but she didn’t pay attention to either of them, too busy to bother. They walked hand in hand, Lucas of course offering his first, taking Jungwoos smaller hand into his, turning it over a few time, looking at it closely, before holding onto it firmly.

“You have lovely nails,” he commented when he was done, yet again swinging their arms between them. Jungwoo was stunned for a second, considering how to reply, but Lucas beat him too it. 

“But certainly not as lovely as you,” he said, the goofy smile taking him over as he laughed at Jungwoos sudden jerk back at the comment, before he started fanning himself, mumbling, “so cheesy, so cheesy.” 

Lucas just laughed. “I am cheesy, but I know you love my cheesiness,” 

Jungwoo squirmed for a second but he could help the equally goofy grin now blooming on his on lips. “I think, I think you may be right,”

“Kiss me?” Lucas asked, eyes now wide with silent anticipation.

“Yes,” Jungwoo let out breathily, letting the other lean in to capture his lips gently, allowing him to wrap his arms around Lucas neck. He could feel the other nip at his bottom lip in a way that made him gasp, allowing Lucas to just kiss deeper, pulling him closer and Jungwoo loved it. They had been reaching for each other like a pursuit for oxygen, and seemingly forgot that they actually needed to breathe, causing them to both pull away only to gasp in air. There was a static silence for a few seconds as they caught their breathes before Jungwoo could feel the small bursts of laughter bubble up inside himself, letting themselves out in small fits of giggles. Lucas looked slightly offended and concerned until Jungwoo started talking again.

“Not bad,” he let out, only laughing harder at the quick take back Lucas did, looking the epidemy of offended. 

“I think I can say the same for you then,” he said, quickly linking their arms together and tugging them back into a walk. Jungwoo hmphed exasperatedly but kept smiling. They walked for another ten minutes or so, going no where in particular when Lucas spotted an ice cream parlour, gasping loud, for all the world to hear. 

“Were going to go get ice cream, and I don’t care what you say,” Lucas said, tugging the other forward, completely disregarding that he had eaten 2 peoples portions of food barely an hour before. He only stopped for barely a second in his stead, eyes flicking around before tugging Jungwoo a slightly different way. 

“I thought you wanted to get ice cream?” Jungwoo asked as he tried to match the others pace, Lucas wrapping an arm around Jungwoos shoulders and squeezing him close.

“I do! I just remembered that there's a really really really good place just further down this road, come on you’ve got to try it,” and like that, they were off at full speed again, Jungwoo uncaring of the quick change in plan. 

|

Yuta was really tired of having to watch these too already, truthfully he was curious himself about Jungwoos mystery partner, and it was honestly the only reason he agreed to do this for Doyoung, but seriously, the pair were more in love than any dam couple he had ever seen, and he knew Doyoung and Jaehyun. At this point it didn’t seem to make sense that he needed to be here. They were getting dangerously close to each other and Yuta pulled out his phone to get prime black mail material, only to have to turn away at how disgustingly cute they were. He slumped against one of the close to filthy walls of the thin side lanes that allowed him to follow the couple anonymously and waited for them to walk a little bit quicker, it wasn’t like they were going anywhere fast. He strolled comfortably along only stopping when he saw the guy Jungwoo was with enthusiastically walk towards the ice cream parlour. Finally, I get to walk at a human pace! The pair suddenly stopped though and changed directions, to Yutas relief, at the same reasonable pace. He was prepared to quickly cross the road looking both ways for cars when a hand snatched over his mouth.

“What’s a pretty thing like you doing walking through these streets?” The man hissed, sliding a hand down to Yutas hip, quickly unsheathing the knife he had hidden there. “Mmm, pretty blade; part of the Mèng gang, are we?” Yuta could see the bother in struggling just yet, so he stayed silent, taking note of the mans very distinctive ring, he would be sure to mention it to Sicheng later. “Oh that’s right, that’s only for the official stuff. Prefer Dreamies instead, hmm?” 

Yuta had no idea what the man was talking about. Well sort of. Either way he rolled his eyes in the most exajurated way before breathing in sharply and elbowing the man right in the ribs. The other let out a soft “oomph.” The man squeezed his arm against his side for protection and tried to hit down at Yuta with the other arm, a move that was easily blocked, allowing Yuta to kick the mans knee, making him stumble slightly. But the other was strong, quickly the man kicked his slightly injured leg into Yutas stomach before hitting him in the head with the butts of the knives he was gripping. Yuta didn’t like that. He huffed in annoyance before grabbing the mans arm when he went in for a second strike, turning his back to the man and shoulder rolling him hard into the ground. The other was only winded slightly, so Yuta decided it probably wasn’t enough to keep him away and quickly banged both of his temples, effectively knocking him out. 

The Japanese man breathed in quickly and expelled the breath before ducking closer to grab his knife, quickly sliding it back into its holder. He left the man on the ground, quickly dusted off his shirt and made his way to find the couple again.

 

|

 

The sun was almost setting by the time Lucas walked Jungwoo back to his apartment, the pair having spent hours on end in each others company. They were still chatting happily when Jungwoo unlocked his door, only to quickly close it again, blocking it as if his life depended on it. 

“Whats wrong? Are you hiding a dead body in there?” Lucas joked, just missing the slight grimace Jungwoo made. 

“No, more like a very annoying and nosy room mate that if I let you in will never let you out. I promise you, you do not want to meet him right now,” 

Lucas nodded thoughtfully, seemingly agreeing with the sentiment. “Don’t worry,” he said, “I've got room mates that are just the same.” 

Jungwoo smiled thankfully, his death grip on the door loosening. They stood awkwardly for a moment, the only time they had actually run out of things to say. Jungwoo kept on glancing Lucas’ way, glancing from his eyes, to his lips and back. 

“Can I –“ he started, watching carefully as Lucas offered him the kindest smile he had seen in his life. “Can you kiss me goodbye?” Jungwoo asked, curling into himself slightly, waiting for an answer. Lucas broke out into a full out grin. 

“I’m glad you asked.”

|

“Oh wow you look like you could light up an entire Christmas tree,” Doyoung offered kindly from where he was propped up on the sofa, ‘busy’ on his laptop. “So good date then?” 

Jungwoo nodded in confirmation, too happy to bother with the other; choosing instead to make his way to his bedroom to shut himself in. Barely a few minutes later there was a light knock on the door, just what Doyoung had been waiting for. He put his laptop to the side, pausing his show to let the person at the door in. As soon as he unlocked the door Yuta walked in, right brow smeared red with blood, even though the rest of him looked fine, allowing him to stride in in tremendous fashion.

“What the hell happened to you?” Doyoung asked, still making the face where he just looked like a confused bunny. 

“Not much,” Yuta replied, heading straight to Doyoungs room, letting the door click open, inviting himself to flop onto the bed. Doyoung followed behind, not exactly thrilled that the other was getting blood on his sheets. 

“Does it hurt?” he asked the other, only getting a muffled grunt in reply. “Okay then, can you at least be bothered to tell me anything that happened? Because Jungwoo came in here looking like the sun.”

Yuta scoffed at the statement, rolling himself over to look at the other while awkwardly digging for his phone. “Well they guy he met I mean he was pretty damn hot, they went to a Chinese restaurant first, stayed in there probably about thirty minutes, I don’t know, I cant do surveillance. But after they got out they were both really starry eyed and started kissing. Got some good black mail material,” Yuta handed his phone to Doyoung, forst showing a photo of the man Jungwoo was with, leaving the other to laugh when Doyoungs eyes went comically wide. 

“Okay, but was he nice? Did he treat Jungwoo well?” Doyoung asked after he had gotten over the photos of the pair, quickly handing Yuta is phone back.

“Yeah, actually really well, he looked after him, and didn’t seem to push him, definitely a good match, and they talked for HOURS, I got attacked and then they kept on walking for at least another two or three hours,”

“Wait one second,” Doyoung interrupted, “You got attacked nearly 3 hours ago, and you’re still bleeding?”

“Yeah I kept on forgetting it was there, and every time someone looked at me I just pretended I was on the phone so I accidentally kept opening it up again,” Yuta let out nonchalantly, waving his hand around carelessly in a way that made Doyoung want to slap it out of the air. 

“Hopeless,” Doyoung said to himself, no caring about the look Yuta gave him. 

“Oh yeah! Forgot about this, meant to tell Sicheng, but you'll do,” Doyoung pretended to be offended by that. “the man who attacked me, I think he was part of one of those gangs that was coming in, he had a ring with little swirly symbols, like what Win win had said. Plus, he asked me if I was in the Mèng gang, or the Dreamies,”

“You think that he was expecting a different gang?” Doyoung asked, completely puzzled over the mans question. “I wonder if both of them are working further on the east side of the city, thinking that its out of our territory,”

“Probably, he made no mention of us,”

Doyoung sighed after a while, moving to the bathroom to grab damp cloth before throwing it at Yuta. “Great, now I have to report this to Taeyong. Hes not gonna be happy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to eveyone to sticking it out even i dont have that much dedication and i will update as often as possible thankyouuu!!! hope you enjoy your day <3


	9. The 7th Sense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW OK SO THIS WEEK AND LAST WEEK HAVE BEEN A LITTLE CRAZY SORRY SO I HAVENT REALLY GOTTEN A CHANCE TO WRITE (SORRY THIS SECTION IS SOSOSOSOSO SHORT) but anyways i hope it tunrned out okay and pls feel free to come chat about my numerous spelling errors below <3<3

Before Doyoung could tell Taeyong anything – he knew Yuta wouldn’t do it, the other deciding to crash at Taeil’s place while they waited to finish their assignment – they had to take care of their current job. It had been nearly another two weeks since Jungwoo had been fired, and all they had left to do was wait. None of them were permitted to leave their houses with exception of Taeil – who actually had a proper job. Jungwoo had said it would be best to do it on a Thursday, since both Doyoung and Jungwoo had noticed she stayed especially late on Thursdays, and Jungwoo knew her receptionist at 4; apparently due to Jungwoo’s supervisor being too loud for his own good. And Thursday was finally here. Doyoung could not be gladder to go home; he missed Jaeyun badly, the almost month-long separation was tugging at him. The car they were in was starting to get stuffy, Doyoung and Jungwoo stuck in there together. Taeil and Yuta: the two who were going in later were in a senperate car, all of them waiting for the lights on the 7th floor to shut off, letting them know most of the workers had gone for the day. Jungwoo was still texting, so Doyoung swiped the phone off him, turning it off quickly and stashed it in his pocket. “Come on, we need to focus now,”

“Okay, sorry, I got distracted,” Jungwoo said shaking his head a few times as if to clear it. “We’ll have to wait a few more minutes, it shouldn’t take long, of course, if those ids work,”

“Let’s hope so,” Doyoung let out, going back to focus on the building in front of them. The thin band of light that cut through the dark sky finally clicked off, only leaving a thin glow from the highest level. They saw only two people leave before the pair decided to move in, Doyoung leading. There were security cameras everywhere in the lobby, so they briskly walked round to the underground parking. 

“There was only one security camera there,” Jungwoo had said when they considered the entry ways. When you drive in, your card is usually scanned, and it recognises if it’s a valid card.”

They were close to the entrance when Jungwoo held Doyoung back, keeping him in place while he texted on his phone, getting a response in seconds. 

“They said they can do it in exactly… 50 seconds,” Jungwoo whispered, voice muffled by his face mask. 

“For how long?” Doyoung asked in return, looking around and pretending to do up his blazer buttons, pretending he wasn’t out of place. 

“Ten seconds.”

Jungwoo was still watching the clock on his phone intently, waiting for the right time. “Are we close enough?” Doyoung asked.

“It’s just in there,” Jungwoo replied, vaguely gesturing to the opening in the building, about five metres down the narrow street. “We have thirty seconds, we need to move a bit closer,” 

They shuffled along, right on the edge of the wall, careful to be out of the sight of any cameras.

“Twenty seconds,”

 

“Fifteen,”

 

Doyoung could feel the thrum of adrenaline running through himself as he held his breath, waiting until the end of the countdown. 

 

“Ten,”

 

“Five,” Jungwoo whispered,

 

“And now,” they ran as quickly as possible, abruptly ducking under the car barrier, continuing to run even after they were well clear of the cameras sight, if only for safety measures. There was absolutely nothing in the concrete car park except the sounds of their ragged breathing, echoing off the walls. Somewhere down here, one of the cars held Yuta and Taeil, who had used another ID to drive straight in, to lie in wait for them. There were no cameras on this floor, and if they got the second elevator, not the first, Jungwoo had dismantled the camera just before he left, with Taeil’s guidance, and he knew no one would notice or care, after all; he had tried it with the first elevator first, but he had only short circuited one side, leaving the other part of the image still visible. They walked calmly over to the elevators, Jungwoo pulled his gloves to fit more snugly on his fingers and Doyoung did the same before clicking the up button. They both stepped to the side, just in case the camera was somehow on. Doyoung texted Taeil. 

*DY: Visual up 2, still out?

Taeil: Yes still gone *

Jungwoo was watching him, when he got the nod from Doyoung he sprung into the elevator, just in time to stop it from opening. He waited for Doyung to send the text to the other pair, telling them to be up quickly. What Doyoung and Jungwoo had to do was simple; Jungwoo would go in, offer the woman a dosed-up Gin, - she was well known for drinking – saying it was from someone else who was eating on the floor, offer to clean up and leave. Simple. With the strength that Kun had given them, it would probably take less than a drop to kill her. They reached the penthouse safely and the lack of light let them know they could easily prepare. Jungwoo removed his coat to reveal the sharp tuxedo jacket and bowtie underneath, making himself neat as possible before sliding on a gas mask, as Kun had said, you cannot be too careful. Doyoung had already done the same and was using a needle to drop the contents of the thin vile into the thick glass cup. When he had emptied the vile he put both the needle and the vile into a bio hazard bag before sealing it in an airtight container. Kun could deal with it later. He pulled out the chilled flask of Gin he had brought and filled the glass, checking to see that there were no layers in the drink before handing it to Jungwoo. Doyoung slid the air tight container along with the two masks back into his bag, moving away from Jungwoo to hide near the secretary’s desk. 

Jungwoo stood up as straight as he could, shoulders back, chest out, eyes straight. He held the glass in his white gloved hands, careful to make sure the liquid wouldn’t spill. He could hear the elevator opening behind him, and seconds later someone was beside him. Jungwoo offered the glass to the person beside him, who took it steadily, allowing Jungwoo to walk slightly ahead, towards the plaqued door. He knocked. There was a disgruntled call from within, letting him know he could open the door. The room was wide, but dimly lit, only filled with the yellow glow of the desk lap.

Liquor table, a few selections of Gin, good choice then, Jungwoo thought. No wedding ring, like the file said. “Good evening, ma’am,” Jungwoo said politely, walking to stand in front of the desk. The woman looked up for a second before looking back down at her ‘work.’ 

“Who are you?” she said harshly, clearly not pleased at the intrusion.

“The man over there,” Jungwoo said waving vaguely at the offices to the left of the one he was currently in, “he requested for you to have this, and when you are done, we will gladly offer more refreshments and a meal,” as Jungwoo gestured Taeil brought in the drink, placing down a coaster before the glass. 

Jungwoo watched carefully as the woman reacted the offering that supposedly came from the man on the other side of the office. Her face soured slightly. “He says, he wishes to send his apologies, he said, as he phrased it, he ‘fucked it up,’” This made her smile. Not a kind one, the kind that pulled all self-righteousness and smugness into the centre of someone’s being.

“Is it chilled?” she asked, eyeing the glass now instead.

“Yes ma’am,” she downed it in one go, humming at the burn. 

“Tell him I want five more of these, and the most expensive things he can muster. He’s going to pay for this,” she laughed to herself, maybe already a little bit drunk. Taeil retrieved the glass and coaster, and with the other hand wiped down the surface where it had been. They both bowed before leaving the room, closing the door with a click before walking as calmly as they could back to the elevators. Yuta and Doyoung met them there, Doyoung holding out the air tight container for Taeil to put the cup, cloth and coaster into while Yuta kept the lift door open, for them to quickly all enter. Jungwoo held his breath the entire way down the pressure of the fear running through him keeping from thinking properly, the urge to run growing ever stronger. As soon as the elevator clicked open the four of them moved like one organism, perfectly in time, quickly sliding into the car. They all stayed completely silent as the car started up and all of them sans Yuta ducked down as he swiped his card to get through the barrier. Jungwoo felt the thrum of the car underneath him, rumbling to let them know they were moving again. 

“We’re clear now,” Yuta said, eyes still firm on the road. They all slid back into the seat and clipped in the seat belts, watching the road.

“That could’ve been a close one,” Doyoung muttered, eyes closed as he leaned back.

“The corporate ones are always harder,” Yuta replied, taking a right turn. “They’re always harder to make look like an accident. Or in anyways not an assassination,”

“That’s why we’ve got Kun,” Taeil offered, turning around to face the back seats and ruffle Doyoung’s hair while he was still too subdued to fight back.

“Just get out here, Taeil, it’s just a bit further down. Grab the keys off Doyoung will you?” Yuta had brought the car to a still and was talking directly to Jungwoo. He quickly dived his hand into Doyoungs pocket to find the keys exactly where they should’ve been. He passed them over to Taeil who held the key in between his fingers, swinging them back and forward before grabbing the back pack, waving goodbye.

“How will we get payed? We don’t have any evidence right now,” Jungwoo commented as they started driving again. All of the other ‘jobs he had been sent on were mostly monetary transactions or drugs, he didn’t really know how it worked., so he looked to the expert for guidance. 

“This one we won’t need evidence for,” Yuta said, still not looking back. “When it hits the headlines, we’ll get paid.” 

|

Yuta pulled up to a corner about a block away from the house, their home, letting both of them out so he could quickly change the plates back and return the rental car. They were able to finally return home, much to both of their relief. They walked along together, or more Jungwoo propped Doyoung up as they swayed along the side walk. Doyoung had always gotten sleepy after a long assignment, it was if the task physically drained him. They luckily could come back straight away, much in thanks to Jaehyun having already collected their few belongings from the flat last night, along with Win win cleaning everything out. When Jungwoo tugged Doyoung along and up the back stairs, knocking for someone to let them in Jaehyun immediately sprang on them, hugging Doyoung tightly. 

“I missed you,” he whispered, only allowing Doyoung to hum in reply, curling his arms around Jaehyuns waist. Jungwoo left the couple, instead choosing to head straight up to sleep. 

|

The sun gave the house a soft glow at that time of morning, the times when no one was there to disturb him. Taeyong watched as the sun rose from the quiet hum of the night, preparing the world for its reset. He let out a deep breath. Today, well yesterday now hadn’t been a good one. Yes, he was glad, ecstatic, overjoyed that his family had come back home, all safe and sound, but along with them had come a preluding of something much nastier.

 

“How are you doing?” Yuta asked when he gently pushed open Taeyong’s bedroom door, stripped of his usual brashness. 

Taeyong hummed in reply, just holding his arms out for Yuta to hug him. He would hug the others later.

“Didn’t think you would be asleep, you never are when we come back,” Yuta mumbled by Taeyong’s ear before letting go, to face Taeyong directly. His tired eyes. The black hair that had grown out just a bit. The slumped back and rolled shoulders. 

“It’s been a little hard. Jaehyun’s basically been able to do nothing since Doyoung’s been gone past the three week line, I sent him out on a run and he barely got out of that without shooting up the place.” Taeyong offered when he saw Yuta’s eyes flick over him. 

“It’s okay, Doyoung was starting to get pretty nasty in the end, I don’t think they work well apart from each other,” Yuta laughed, eyes crinkling in the corners, hiding the bags surrounding them. 

“But yeah, Kun’s been stressed, Win wins had to work every night and I’ve just been trying to make everything work, but in truth I don’t even know if we’re going to find anything,” He was starting to fidget now, whether over the work or the uncertainty, Yuta didn’t know.

“I mean we all pretend we’re so tough but in the end we’re just idiots banded together. But I know it’s been hard on you, just searching, but I did actually find something,” 

Taeyong straightened out his back, curving an eyebrow up to show his surprise.

“I was following Jungwoo on his date, I didn’t want to, okay I did, but Doyoung put me up to it, so blame him,”

“Give me any photos you got and I know you got some, and I’ll let it go,” Taeyong smiled, even though it was clear he wasn’t going to do anything about it to begin with.

“I was going up a side alley, like you taught me, there’s no use trailing someone down a main road, and this guy attacked me,”

“Are you okay?” Taeyong asked quickly, interrupting Yuta’s story.

“Yes, I’ve had worse. But he was wearing a ring, it had little swirls and a reasonably thick band, I wouldn’t just go off that, I was going to ask Sicheng to see if what I saw matched the rings.”

Taeyong paused for a second before getting up from his place on his bed, going to riffle through the papers on his desk until he found what he was looking for, handing the paper to Yuta. 

“Win Win drew it up for me when I asked, it may not be completely accurate, but that swirly flower pattern is very distinctive.”

Yuta looked at the small illustration, taking note of the way the little stripes curled around the ring, nodding furiously at the matching patterns. “This is definitely it, Win Win did a really good job at remembering it.” Taeyong hummed in agreement. “But ther was one other thing, he asked me if I was part of the meng gang, or 

Dreamies.” Yuta posed, slightly unsure of the statement he himself had made.

“Have you heard of them before?” Taeyong asked, looking intently at Yuta, trying to puzzle out his words. Yuta smoothed down the bedspread beside him. “I didn’t … but I did a little searching,” 

Taeyongs eyes widened in shock, but his expression quickly morphed into one of sternness. “I don’t want you to do that, you know that right? Especially when your off grid, we cant be there for you,”

“I know, I know, and normally you know I wouldn’t,” Yuta offered, waving a hand around as if he pretended that Taeyong's concern didn’t make him feel the guilt spread over what he had done. “But at that point it was something that was needed to be done, you're stressing over it, Kun's stressing over it, and not in the regular way, this is a problem for both of you, so I found out that the two gangs are having disputes over territory in the southern outskirts of the city, you know where Taeil’s casino is? Right by there. They planned to have some sort of meet up to figure it out,”

“How did you-“ Taeyong started, leaning in slightly give him a pointed look.

“I asked Taeil for some information, but other than that, you don’t want to know,”

Taeyong sighed. “Where is it, and how soon?”

“The warehouses, tomorrow, midnight.” 

“Okay, I can get Jungwoo to go, I cant separate Doyoung just yet. I want to keep Kun on hand and ill take whoever else can come. Would you be up to it?” He asked, raising a brow in question.

“Yes, I want to go.”

“Okay, in that case, go get some rest, we need you at your best if anything happens.” Taeyong replied, rubbing his eyes, one at a time. Yuta stood up to leave, the floor boards creaking slightly under his weight. “You know we love you right?” Taeyong asked, still rubbing his eyes.

“I know, I know you all do,”

“We want to b there for you okay? Make sure you let us be,”

Yuta nodded in response, finally letting out a ‘good night’ before closing Taeyong's bedroom door. Yuta let out a deep breath letting his chest sink back into the door frame as he remembered the times before meeting all the others scattered throughout the house right now, back when he wasn’t sure which day would be his last. Yuta needed a drink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok forgot to mention this for the past 9 fricking chapters but i havent put in the check for their names hehe hehhehehe... im soosososos sorry if i got any of them wrong anywhere. thanks for reading and hopefully ill update again soon (COMMENT AT ME SO I DONT BECOME A LAZY BUM AND FORGET THIS EXISTS UGH) LOVE YALLS


	10. WITHOUT YOU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jungwoo is sent back out on a mission, and get too much for what he bargained for

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to just leave this here...

Taeyong was resting in a chair beside Jungwoo’s bed when Jungwoo woke up. Their leader was facing straight forward, a pillow on his lap, eyes closed. Jungwoo shuffled around slightly, checking his phone before sitting up, knowing Taeyong would talk if he wanted too.

“we need you to go on a mission.” 

There was a silence that chased after his words, until it took up the entire room. “I’m sorry, but I have no other option, but if you aren’t up to it, we can make it work,”

Jungwoo pursed his lips together for a moment, thinking it over. “I think I will be fine. If I’m helping out then I’ll be okay. What do you need me to do?”

“It’s just scouting, but it’s for tonight,” Jung woos shoulders slumped in relief, the promise of not having to go out on another month-long assignment was a weight off his shoulders. Taeyong nodded a bit, small smile gracing his lips. “I’m happy you don’t have to go as well, we all are,”

“Thank you,” Jungwoo smiled too, certainly happy to be home. “If I sleep for another two hours I should be ready to go. I s that okay?”

“Yeah. We’re going to go at 10.” 

“Okay,”

Taeyong stood up, eyes opening to reveal a pair of dark, tired eyes. “Make sure you sleep well. Yuta will come wake you up.” He ruffled Jungwoo’s hair before walking out, being careful to close the door quickly. Jungwoo closed his eyes in hopes that those two hours would be enough. 

|

“Are we going to leave you here?” Taeyong asked watching Jaehyun and Doyoung borderline doing things that should not be done in public. 

“You can all head off first. We may take the other car later if we feel like it-,” Jaehyun offered, trying to not look like he wasn’t sneaking his hand under Doyoungs shirt. 

“But I wouldn’t press your luck,” Doyoung finished, nudging Jaehyuns arm slightly, trying to cover what the other was doing. 

“Okay, everyone else?” Everyone including Johnny and Taeil were all over, most of them fiddling with whatever they needed to, intent on setting up their desired utensils. Yuta was fiddling with his knives while Kun had already put on his breathing mask and was carefully lining each of Taeil and Win wins knives with whatever poison he wanted, the pair of them loading their guns. Johnny was doing something, no one really bothered asking what. 

Taeyong looked around, just listening to himself breathe for a few seconds, waiting. There was an odd haze in the living room, with the curtains closed over the windows and very few lights on. They were waiting. Not waiting to chase someone, but indeed the opposite. Something they weren’t used to. Taeyong walked over to Johnny, touching his shoulder lightly, before holding a firm grip when the other didn’t look up. Johnny continued to fiddle with his guns, never looking Taeyong in the eye. He never did before he was sent out, which luckily wasn’t often. With his free hand Taeyong pulled out the car keys from his back pocket and held them in front of Johnny, waiting for him to take them. 

“if it gets worse, we’ll up the SSRi’s,”

Johnny stayed where he was, but he stiffened just slightly, under his bullet proof vest. 

“Kun can help you, but I know you like to figure out your own doses,” Taeyong continued, still not looking down at Johnny. He was supposed to be a healer, only. 

“No, I agreed. I said I would help,” Johnny rasped out, like he knew exactly where Taeyong’s thoughts were going. 

“I know, but I don’t want you going back,” Taeyong replied. Finally letting both his arms drop to his armed sides. 

“’S alright.” Johnny slurred slightly, small smile covering his lips, eyes turning up under a fringe that was too long for working at a hospital. “It’ll be like Yuta,”

The rest of their team had all stiffened, including Jaehyun and Doyoung in preparation for the punchline; Taeyong’s eyebrows raised up, waiting to see where Johnny was going with this. 

“It’ll be fast and easy,” with that Johnny looped one nimble finger trough the key hook and headed out to the car. Doyoung exploded with laughter, wheezing at Yuta as he huffed, clearly annoyed about the joke at his expense. 

“Seriously, it would have been more accurate if it was about Doyoung,” Yuta grunted, following Johnny’s stead out to the car. Taeil and Sicheng followed him as well, Taeil slinging an arm over Yuta’s shoulder in an effort to console him.

Taeyong heard the door click shut and let his eyes drift to the ceiling, head back. Johnny was indeed one of their best fighters, even if the only practice he had gotten for the last few years was at the gym. He was too good to be worried, but Taeyong wasn’t worried about his physical health, not so much as his sanity. 

“Come on Kun, we’d better get going soon too,” he finally said, more so to the ceiling than Kun himself.

“Already waiting,” Kun replied, holding open the door, waiting for Taeyong to be ready to leave. 

“Okay, lets do this.”

|

While everyone else had still been preparing, Jungwoo was on a bus, halfway to where he needed to be. Since he was supposed to guide the others without being seen, he didn’t have the luxury to just roll up in an all-black, heavy, four wheel car. He was still a bit sleepy, but he knew if he tried to sleep now, he would probably miss his stop. He leaned his head heavily against the window, feeling his gun press further into his side, the cold metal grooving itself into his skin. He had nothing to do but wait. But he was good at that. There was a small buzz of his phone, the device buzzy the chair. Jungwoo frowned slightly. No one was supposed to text him until they were there, they had agreed. They couldn’t be there, already could they? Jungwoo checked the screen, an unconscious childish grin spreading across his face as he read the contact name.

*LB; Just wanted to wish u a good nite

Just in case its the last thing I say to u <3*

Jungwoos lips tightened like they were caught in a trap. He read the text again. Maybe this would be the last thing he said to Lucas. 

*Jung puppy; good night to u too, hope u have a good day (✿. ♥)*

When Jungwoo had finally just finished typing in the perfect emoji, they had just passed his stop. He quickly slammed the stop button, running out the back door as quickly as he could, thanking the driver before pacing back down the pavement. There was no one out, the few street lights around were just starting to flicker on, leading him to where he needed to go. There were only one or two warehouses around here large enough and abandoned enough to house what these people wanted to do, presumably, quietly murder and then take over the property of those they had killed. It was nothing new. 

One of the warehouses looked completely abandoned at this point, the few high windows smashed in and the sides covered in graffiti, what was visible on the inside was covered in layers of undisturbed dust. Jung woo went around a few times, just in case. The next warehouse looked much more promising. While it was still covered in graffiti and various windows had been smashed in, the entire warehouse was filled with crates. Small ones, large ones, scattered everywhere, but all immaculate. Deciding not to risk any of the large corrugated iron doors, just in case these gangs had already set up their guards he picked the window that looked the most smashed through. Light threatened to crawl through the fences around the compound to where he was, threatening to light up what he needed hidden. Luckily this warehouse had slightly lowered windows, making it much easier for him to climb up the fire exit and shuffle along the wall to the window he needed. Before he tried to pull himself through he stretched his gloves up his arms, careful to not let them fall down. Breathe in. Breath out. Even if he had done this hundreds, millions, of times before, nothing ever prepared him for that tidal wave of an adrenaline rush that filled him when he shuffled his way into somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be. There was almost nothing beneath his feet as he dangled in the window pane, the only light flooding through those few large broken windows, giving an easy view of a few flat rooftops across the way. There was a ledge on the other edge of the window sill, the barrier of the raised ledge just enough for him to cling his feet onto. Jungwoo took another deep breath, allowing the stiffness in his hands to hold him on tight to that sill. He gripped tightly along, swinging himself back and forward, letting his fingers catch onto the edges, feeling the grainy rust crumble under his fingers. Finally, he could feel the metal rail brush the tips of his feet. 

“Come on,” he muttered to himself, using all the stomach muscles he possessed, albeit few, to hook his feet onto the railing. He held his breath in tight as possible, scared that he would slip if he let it out. The tenseness in his hands was giving way to throbbing spikes in the palms of his hands as they stretched painfully. Despite his gloves he could feel the rotting metal beneath his fingers, barely keeping him there. In the otherwise silent complex there was a heavy snap. His entire body tilted down as the too rusty ledge he was clutching onto for dear life bent. 

“Oh shit,” he breathed. He didn’t have the time to think, the adrenaline that had been leaving a dull ache in his stomach spiked into his heart, like a vengeful stabbing. He lifted his gaze from the dark concrete far below him up to the window in front of him. The grimey window pane right on the edge of his covered finger tips, it was enough to give him the leverage he needed. He didn’t have time to check if his legs latched on well to the railing, only enough time to finally, with all his strength, push himself off.

He could feel himself flying through the air, spinning around the railing until his back fell hard onto the metal floor of that ledge. The thin slab of metal he had been holding onto crashed loudly onto the floor below, ringing deafeningly. For once, he was more than grateful into being forced into Win Wins martial art sessions. As narrow as his escape was he needed to get up quickly, away from where he could so easily be seen. The metal grating beneath him hurt his fingers when he held onto it, hauling himself up as soundlessly as possible. With the protests of his legs and hands he managed to pull himself up onto trembling legs, carefully treading away from the very visible area. He moved further towards the corner of the warehouse more covered in darkness to try and feel his way for a stairwell downwards. When the hand he was using to guide himself hit a hand rail instead of the waved walls, he knew he had found it. Guiding himself down carefully, making sure to not miss a step. He stumbled slightly when he reached the bottom of the stairs, the darkened lines unclear where they began and ended. He ought to be more used to it by now, but as much as he had adjusted to his strange surrounding, his eyes still hadn’t. 

It took him several seconds to comprehend the layout of what he could see, the view of the crates contrasting heavily to how he had seen it from above. From here everything was much larger, the crates more looming and the little light was even less present. He reached into his back pocket, pulling out one of his earphones, leaving the other dangling lowly. Taeyong had said they would call as soon as they arrived and if Jungwoo accepted the call they knew they could come straight in. that was the plan. And Jungwoo couldn’t risk messing it up. Even with one of his senses now blurred by the small plastic headphone, he could see a lot clearer now, allowing to move with much more ease. He stayed behind crates, skirting around carefully in an effort to keep out of the light and to make it to the main steel door he had seen before. There was a tunnel of crates in front of him, the thin parting leaving him with the option of going through the main walkway and risk walking right into someone or moving to a more upright stance to squeeze his way through. Looking from the crates to the wide path several crates away, Jungwoo decided to go with the latter. The furrow in his brow grew deeper as he stared the parting down, curling his arms tightly into himself as he stooped to wards it, prepared to stand up and push his way through quickly. He inhaled sharply, curling his stomach in and slowly stood up, holding one arm towards the larger pale wood crate to see if he could make more room.

As soon as he pushed stiff fabric with a soft warmth behind it thrust itself into Jungwoos neck leaving him to gasp and let go of all the oxygen he had in his lungs out of shock. Instinctively he tried to push his head down into his neck, an effort in vain to wedge his chin between his wind pipe and the assailants arm. Whoever it was just pulled tighter, making Jungwoo almost gag for air, desperately clawing for the arm to be removed. All he could here was the static like that one time when he had been under water for too long because they had gone to the beach and no one realised Jungwoo couldn’t swim. His vision was splotchy too, his peripheral taking on a blackish grey mess, the same colour as all Taeil’s sweaters. Jungwoo would miss them. He leaned his head back in one final effort to take a breath, inadvertently pressing his head against his murderer’s chest looking up into the little light there was. Even with Taeil’s sweaters taking up even more of his vision, he could still see the faintest outline of whenever his murderer was. That caramel coloured hair, the dark roots growing in for too long. The large eyes shut tight, thick lips pressed in a tight string out of exertion. Jungwoo knew this man. He had little left in him, the tightness of his chest sending his head swimming, his impulse sending what little strength he had left in him to try and grasp at the wisps of breath he could, but this could save him. This could let him live. Jungwoo kept his eyes turned towards the sky, the final willpower he had in him made him drop his arms, instead focussing on his wind pipe currently being crushed. Just one thing, just one time. 

Jungwoo breathed in one last time.

And he let what little he had left out. 

 

“Lucas.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FIRST OF ALL HOW WAS THAT HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH WILL HE DIE YOU DONT KNOW I DONT KNOW YOULL WELL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL I HAVE NO MORE HOMEWORK HAHAHAH no but seriously im sorry for doing that to yalls, if yalls were expecting that then i havent done a good enough job obviously, come yell t me in the comments for betraying yalls and thank you for anyone who a)bothers to read this trash that i never update (sorry again) and b) all my friends who kudos and comment like yes pls thank you. Have a good day/night/vening/moringn all of you!!!


	11. 我們以孤獨之名生存, 卻等待和我有同樣傷痕

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kun doesn't know whats going on but then again no one else does either

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hiiiii im really really hella tired today aint a great day... sorry im not leaving any of them happy notes but yeah enjoy!! and have a good day...
> 
> but um the lyrics above are taken from without you chinese ver, its probably one of my fave somngs on the empathy albulm, it has really deep meanings and that lyric just fit perfectly w the chaper so hey go listen!

| Yuta

 

The four of them ungraciously jumped out of their car, the weight of weapons and ammunition holding them firm to the ground. Yuta swore he had at least 12 knives in each shoe. He and Sicheng were supposed to keep hold of the back of the warehouse until Taeyong said it was clear, making sure no one of either gang got past them. All of them knew what they were doing, Taeil and Johnny immediately moved in the opposite way to Yuta, Yuta himself having the confidence that Win Win was just behind him. When they reached the darkened back of the warehouse Win Win tapped Yutas shoulder, pointing at himself, then to the door in the other corner of the wall. Yuta nodded, telling the other he knew Win win would take there, he himself taking the other corner, right below the fire exit. Yuta crouched down into the dirt, nose scrunching up at the texture against his gloves. He kept his eyes up though, preparing to have to move at any time. Taeyong was waiting for Jungwoo to take his call, to let their leader know that he didn’t have to sneak in, that it was safe to just enter. In turn the rest of them were waiting for either Kun or Taeyong to let them know they could move in too, that they no longer needed to guard the complex. Though Yuta thought that should happen soon, it wouldn’t be much longer until Taeyong got closer.

All they had to do was wait. But Yuta wasn’t good at that. Within a few minutes he started pushing the gravel around, piece by piece, making little shapes to entertain himself. Even as he watched his gloved fingers move the little rocks he heard a crunch, something that was neither him nor Sicheng. The crease between his brows deepened impressively as he tried staying stock still. There was another one. The same grind of gravel against a shoe the sound of someone walking. Yuta looked up slowly searching for Sicheng in the other end of the darkness. He could just barely make out the others outline, but he could see he was looking back at him. The pair of them turned their gaze towards the sound. There were three men, moving ever so slowly across the gravelled complex, walking closer and closer towards the door Win win was crouching in front of. They clearly couldn’t see either of them. Yuta kept himself low and moved closer and closer to Sicheng, never close enough though that he would be in their way. The men kept moving towards Sicheng, as they did Yuta grabbed a throwing knife, slowing standing up and pressing himself against the wall of the warehouse. By the time Yuta had fully stood up the tallest one had spotted him and was glaring harshly, as if trying to see properly, undoubtedly though he was also moving to grab a gun. So, Yuta reeled his arm back and threw the knife as hard as he could, aiming right for the man’s abdomen. He let out a loud gasp at the impact the other two helping their companion as he stumbled back slightly, a growl escaping from his lips. Yuta ran closer to Sicheng noticing immediately the gun in the others hand. The man Yuta had thrown at was angry now though, the growling increasing to a loud snarl, as if he was some sort of rabid animal. Even with the other two telling him to leave the knife in the man tugged it out, yet again gasping slightly at the pain before charging towards Both Yuta and Sicheng. 

“we really should get you a gun,” Sicheng let out under his breath before moving to the side, leaving Yuta to handle the angered man alone. 

 

| Taeyong

 

Taeyong still hadn’t heard back from Jungwoo, but at this point he was getting desperate. He assumed that since the other wasn’t picking up he couldn’t just waltz right in. Instead he just decided to walk through the gigantic front doors that were slightly parted. They had reached the doors with relative ease, despite the fighting on their side of the warehouse, as evidenced by Johnny’s occasional exclamation. When they reached them Taeyong decided it was probably best that he should go in first, if only for Kun’s safety. He pushed his way through the slim gap, leaving a small dim shadow to guide his path into the warehouse. Taeyong crouched down into the shadows, allowing him to hide while his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the warehouse. He looked around from where he was, seeing, and listening for any signs of people patrolling around. His eyes scanned back and forward, only after his fifth time looking did his eyes catch on the white sneakers to contrast the dark concrete floor. He could only see them through a very thin gap between some crates, but they weren’t moving at all. Taeyong crawled his way around moving closer to the shoes and their owner. When he was assured that he was at a comfortable distance away, a distance where his gun would still be advantageous, he felt into his pocket, pulling back the safety. He waited a few more seconds before slowly bringing himself up to see above the boxes. The owner of those shoes was about Taeyong’s height, but his shoulders were hunched over, whoever it was looking into an open crate, not moving an inch. As soon as Taeyong lifted his gun though, the other twisted himself around to face Taeyong, a similar gun now facing Taeyong. As similar in ages they had looked before, this mans, or rather boys face told a completely story. Despite the deep bags under the others eyes, there was no doubt he was barely an adult. 

“What are you doing here,” Taeyong muttered darkly, eyes narrowing, without a proper question posed. 

“I could say the same for you, I don’t remember organising a meeting with you,” the other said clearly, voice slightly raspy. 

“Foreign gangs have been in my territory, I believe you belong to one of them,” Taeyong offered in answer, eyebrow quirking slightly. 

“And that warrants you invading a trade agreement?”

“Maybe trying to skirt on the outskirts of his territory doesn’t,” Kun said in Mandarin from somewhere to Taeyong’s left, a little muffled from the mask, “but using child soldiers sure does.” There was a resonant anger in the depths of Kun’s voice, something what was rarely ever there. But Taeyong knew he couldn’t conduct himself in Korean in that state. 

The other man seemed slightly taken back, his eyes deepening as his forehead crinkled between his brows.

“We don’t use child soldiers,” the man replied in nearly perfect Mandarin, only slightly pulled with a tense accent. Taeyong suspected under less pressurised circumstances, it would have been passable as his native tongue. 

“Then why did I have a kid with a bullet wound showing up to my hospital with only a gang member to his name?!” Kun let out, he was holding something, that was probably acid very tightly, as if he was prepared to throw it. his voice was barely raised, but the speech almost too fast for Taeyong to comprehend. The other man didn’t seem fazed though, he slowly reached into his jacket with his right hand, pulling out yet another gun and flicking back the safety to point it at Kun. The other didn’t bother moving away. 

“This is not your fight,” the man said, still keeping his eyes on Taeyong. 

“No, it’s not, but you might just make it mine,” Kun replied. 

Right at that moment someone heaved the heavy metal doors apart ready to run right in, their breaths louder than the door screeching.

“Mark hyung! Lucas came back, he brought-,” the other started violently when he saw the two other people staring at him, finally clamping his mouth shut. 

“What are you doing here Jisung? It’s dangerous!” the other moved his shoulders just slightly, in what Taeyong assumed was a shrug, still watching Taeyong. “They won’t hurt you, will you?” The man said looking at Kun as he returned to safety to his guns putting them back into his pockets. The boy, Jisung, was watching Taeoyng carefully, only clamping his mouth closed when he too put away his gun. The boy’s eyebrows furrowed deeply as he watched Taeyong and after a few seconds he started to speak again.

“Do you by chance know a… a Jungwoo?” Jisung asked, seeming to lean in to wait for Taeyongs response. Taeyong could feel his eyebrow twitch slightly at the comment.

“Yes, we do. How do you know him?” Taeyong asked. The boy opened his mouth again, ready to spill all he knew, until the loud echoing of clapping spread throughout the complex. There were two men, one clearly the head, standing dominantly in front of other, his eyebrows deeply prominent against his other features. He had a gun pointed directly at Jisungs back. This clearly had all of them frozen, Both Kun and the other staring prominently at the piece of metal.

“what a lovely family reunion but I want some things done. And you,” he guestured to Taeyong causually, waving around a knife, “are getting in the way.”

Taeyong collected himself, seemingly rattling off the point, but Kun spoke first. Taeyong was preparing to have to clean up the shards of Kuns explosion, but instead was met with a steady voice ringing through the warehouse. “I am sorry sir, but what do you intend we do?”

“Did I look like I was talking to you?” the man spat back not bothering to glare at Kun, deciding to keep his knife on Taeyong. “I know you can’t hurt me, none of you would dare,” he said, only momentarily taking his attention back to Jisung to shove the gun further into his spine. Mark, the man Jisung had been talking to before stayed frozen. 

“I know you weren’t talking to me sir, but my question still stands. If we are getting in your way, how should we remove ourselves of it? I doubt you will let us lust walk out of here,” Kun was getting frivolous now, arms starting to recover life, enough to start to move themselves around as Kun talked anyway. It was times like this that Taeyong remembered Kun wasn’t actually a recluse, to quite the contrary, when he wanted to, he could talk a man into giving away his entire inheritance on the premise of freedom. 

Even as Kun talked though, the man seemed to get increasingly annoyed, his dark eyebrows lowering themselves further towards his eyes. A prominent growl forming in the back of his throat. “Are you trying to get smart with me?” 

“No sir, I would never. Instead I ask for your proposal. I think personally I don’t want to die today, nor do I particularly want to get into your land dispute, after all, real estate isn’t really my thing, and this isn’t my choice of location, but it’s spacious I guess,”

The man was moving closer and closer to an uncontrollable rage, the heat in his face pushing further and further to the surface the longer Kun talked. Taeyong looked from the stark contrast of the man to Kun’s cold mien. With a crashing upsurge, Taeyong realised what Kun was doing. “Kun, no,” Taeyong whispered.

Kun must’ve heard him because his eyes flicked to the other, before going right back to his target. “Either way though, I want to leave, and I can’t feel that it is slightly childish that you are fighting an almost literal child,” he gestured to the man boy still frozen somewhere behind him. “and taking a child as hostage, just. For. The. Sake. Of. Your. Ego.” The man was angry now, he was still holding Jisung by the arm, and in doing so had holstered his knife and was storming towards Kun with his gun. Kun hadn’t moved from his place, nor had any of the other men. “Although,” Kun started holding up his hand to the man. He surprisingly stopped, as if taken over by a force. “I doubt you could spell ego, doesn’t seem like your specialty.”

The man let out a roar, preparing to aim his gun right at Kun, but in his rage Jisung had taken it as an opportunity to try and wriggle out of his grip, but he was too fast. He tried too soon. The man set off his gun before getting the chance to shoot it at Kun, putting a bullet wound clean through his arm, leaving him to scream on the dirty cement floor of the warehouse. The gun shot seemed to have spurred everyone into action. In barely seconds everyone had their guns back out, pointed every which way. Kun ran over to Jisung.

 

| Kun

 

“They tried to teach me, but they always said I was too quick for my own good,” he mumbled, brows knitted in concentration, eyes glaring at he wound that oozed black through his shirt. 

“It doesn’t matter now, you’ll be okay in the end, you’ll be okay, can I have a look?” Kun was using his best children’s voice, so that even if he did die he wouldn’t have to die feeling like he was alone in an empty warehouse. The boy moved his arm closer to Kun’s view. It wasn’t as bad as he had thought, none of the bones were shattered and the main artery hadn’t been touched, but he did have a decent half-moon of flesh missing from the bottom of his fore arm. “You aren’t going to die.”

The boy seemed to let out a half sob and let his head back, as if that had been what he was waiting for. “Now I don’t have everything I need to fix you up, so we may have to make do,” Kun quickly pulled out what gauze and tape he had. All of them had an annoying habit of getting themselves stabbed, with the very bare exception of maybe Taeil and surprisingly Yuta, although maybe that was just sheer luck. He quickly teared up the sleeve arm to leave the wound clear. The grainy gauze was laid down carefully down over the wound, Kun a little remorseful that he wasn’t able to clean the wound earlier. He laid the tape in three long strips over the gauze, making sure it held tight. He lifted the boys arm up, Jisung himself barely giving mild objection. Kun kept pressure on the wound.

“I’m sorry, I usually only do the anesthetic,” Kun muttered half-heartedly, trying to make light of the current situation. Jisung mumbled quietly. “Did they not teach you how to patch yourself up?” Kun asked, turning to look closer at the boy. He had almost chick fluff yellow hair and the youthful features to match it. 

“I didn’t think any of us would need it, Renjun usually does it,” Kun started slightly at either the action of the boy speaking or the intonation that one of them knew how to care for someone who probably should have been hospitalised, which one though, he honestly didn’t know. After a few minutes the blood had almost soaked through the gauze and it was starting to concern Kun. Even in the dim light he could tell the blood hadn’t stopped. Kun turned the boys arm over a few times and tried to find his vein to cut off the blood supply, trying it first in three second time slots then in five second ones, but the gauze was now almost completely red. “Come on Kun, come on, what are you going to do!” he spoke to himself in Mandarin, trying to hold down the artery in vain. 

“You know I can understand you?” Jisung spoke, eyes now widening in prominent fear. His Mandarin, just like the man that had spoken before was near perfect.

“No, I did not,” Kun replied, still trying to focus his mind on the wound. What can he do when he had no more gauze?

“Well what’s wrong?” Jisung asked, 

“I – I…” Kun didn’t know if it was best to tell him.

“Just tell me straight off, anything you’re going to tell me isn’t going to hurt me,”

“I don’t have any more gauze, and your wound won’t stop bleeding, I need to get you to somewhere with proper facilities or I’ll have to tourniquet it and you might lose your arm,”

Jisung was already standing up though, as if what Kun had told him wasn’t even up for consideration. “I told you I was always too quick for my own good, I know a place.” He was still holding the wound above his heart, so even if he had never been taught how to stop the bleeding he had been taught the basics. For some reason even with all that had happened around the two guards that had walked in with the third man were still standing guard at the gate, like they were preparing for something, waiting for someone else to show up. Kun was sure they wouldn’t just let Jisung walk away, no matter how determined the other was. Kun quickly reached forward to grab the others good arm, pulling him behind himself. “Let me handle them okay? They aren’t going to let you straight through,” Jisung paused momentarily, considering the idea. He seemed to concede because he stepped behind Kun letting the other take his place. At some time during the ordeals Kun had taken of his mask, and quickly slid it back on, walking fast. “Stand a reasonable way away okay?” 

Jisung did just that leaving a generous distance between him and the other man. Kun gathered his glass vials from his pockets, holding one in each hand. As he approached the guards they came towards him he threw one vial at each of their faces, allowing the glass shattering and treacherous screams of the flailing men tell him he had done his job. Throwing vials were not the most effective, but he didn’t know what he’d be fighting today, so they worked just fine. Jisung caught up to him just moments later, still occasionally staring back at the warehouse at the two men as they walked. Kun didn’t know what the other thought of him now, the boy not having spoken a word since they left the warehouse, only wordlessly leading them quickly out of the compound, down a very secluded side street. When Kun reasoned they had another few minutes at maximum left of walking to go, based on the boy glancing around, the other spoke up. “Our healer doesn’t do that,” there was just the tiniest glint of teasing in Jisung’s words, but it was enough to relax Kun. “We’re here.”

 

Jisung pushed open the decrepit door to reveal a warmly lit hallway. No one could be seen. Hearing them though, that was another matter. “Who’s there,” someone yelled, still not present. Jisung stayed in the entry way of the hall, but he was starting to sway a bit. Somewhere along the way he had forgotten to hold his arm above his chest, and Kun could see he was fading. Kun nudged him gently, thinking it probably wouldn’t be smart for him to answer. It roused Jisung enough to speak up. “Its me you idiot,” Jisung called back, pulling off his shoes and making his way down the hallway. Kun did the same. About half way down the hallway Jisung stopped again, still swaying, but took the moment to yell again. “Don’t even think of attacking me Zhong Chenle!” he yelled in Mandarin, even though there appeared to be no one around. Seconds later a boy slightly shorter than Jisung in stature showed himself from God knows where. 

Recognition flashed in the boys eyes as he saw Kun, even with only half of his face showing, Chenle knew who he was. “You’re… you’re looking much better,” Kun said, moving his eyes from the boys to the others stomach, subconsciously checking for any sign of a wound. 

“They look after me well,” the other said, “but thank you,”

Kun bowed his head slightly. Chenle turned his eyes back to Jisung, and it was only then that he saw the bunching of red gauze attached to the others arm.

“Holy sh-,” Chenle let out, grabbing the others arm, only to quickly release it when the other hissed in pain. 

“I needed to bring him somewhere, somewhere I can give him sutures, the gauze also needs to be changed, hes losing too much blood.” Chenle nodded slowly, even when Jisung didn’t, seemly beyond understanding any of it. Chenle led them around a corner and up a small flight of stairs, letting them into a room that was set up almost exactly the same as any hospital wing, small hospital bed, and further equipment on the side. Kun helped Jisung climb onto the bed, mumbling softly to keep his arm raised. The other followed almost immediately. When Kun unwrapped the gauze, the wound was still bleeding, the hesitant spikes of anxiety overwhelmed him now, he couldn’t let this boy die, not from this. While Kun had been focussing on unwrapping the wound Chenle stuck his head back out and shouted down the stair well. Soon there were thunderous footsteps crashing their way up the steps and three more faces peered in. Kun was starting to panic a bit now, he didn’t usually deal with this, he didn’t know how to tell a boy he might be dying. Partway through trying to fine both something to clean the wound and anaesthetic he felt someone kneel down next to him, small hands working quick to retrieve most of what he was looking for including a blood bag for the boy. Kun removed himself from his pace and back next to Jisung, carefully cleaning out the wound and preparing to inject the anaesthetic. It was top grade anaesthetic he had in his hands, the stuff that was given in hospitals, Jisung would barely need a proper dose if he wanted to only go to sleep. Kun turned to look at the boy on the other side of the bed, setting up a IV for the blood bag. 

“How did you get this?” Kun asked, eyes widening when the boy turned, features recognisable from the first time he had seen him helping Chenle into the vehicle. 

The boy smiled back, just slightly. “We have our ways,” he said before turning back to the blood bag. Maybe he would tell later, Kun thought. Quickly Kun injected the appropriate dosage, apologising to Jisung when he hissed again, still conscious enough to feel the pain. Kun took the opportunity to carefully check over the wound. It looked like the bullet had cut it close to both the ulnar itself and the ulnar artery, but luckily it had not hit his bone. Kun quickly stitched up the opening being as careful as he could until the boy who had been helping Jisung told him he didn’t need to be so delicate. When Kun had finished he wrapped the wound in gauze again and taped it up to apply some pressure. Kun took the boys pulse again, pressing his fingers into Jisungs neck. It was still low, very low, but he wouldn’t die, not today anyway. Kun leant back slightly letting himself deflate back into the chair. 

“He’s going to be alright?” Chenle asked, the questioning tone heavy on his tongue. Kun nodded. It was only then that he realised that he had had an audience the entire time. He moved from his chair. 

“Sit down, sit with your friend,” the three of them were hesitant to begin with but soon rushed into the room surrounding their friend. The fourth one was still standing by the blood drip and would occasionally check Jisungs pulse. “You don’t make this do you?” Kun asked the boy, holding the bottle of anaesthetic towards him. The boy was standing ruler straight, shoulders slightly curled inwards in his thin cardigan. The boy shook his head.

He spoke in soft toned Mandarin. “Haechan organises the imports and Mark ge collects them. I just administer it,” Kun sighed in relief. Kids shouldn’t be handling these sorts of chemicals. 

“You’re very good at it, the works of it all, its really remarkable how calm you can be even when your friends hurt,” Kun offered back.

The boy shrugged a bit. “I’ve seen him in worse.”

“Besides he was dumb to go and run into there alone,” another boy offered, a tall lanky one. 

“Was not!” Jisung muttered back fiercely. The anaesthetic would keep him sedated for a while.

“Yeah you were,” the other said. They kept on going at it for a while, switching in and out of different languages, but everyone but Kun seemed to follow, because when the black-haired boy started laughing the one that had been standing with Kun decided to break it up.

“Okay Jaemin, don’t tantalise him. He knows it was a stupid idea, but you should be glad hes alive. And you Jeno, its rude to laugh at the expense of your friend, even if he was called a fried egg with horse dentures, so stop it,”

“That’s what he said?” Kun inquired, staring from the one called Jeno with his dark hair to the one now wiggling his eyebrows at Jisung, tantalising him. 

“Yeah Jisung doesn’t know any of the proper bad words,” Chenle offered, remaining mainly silent throughout the entire debate with the exception of the occasionally laugh. 

“So he wasn’t supposed to leave?” Kun asked, guesturing tentatively towards Jisung. 

The one who had now given up on tantalizing Jinsing, Jaemin, turned to him. “No. We know its dangerous, so they usually want to keep us inside. But he forgot that Mark hyung had a phone,”

“So you’re… you’re not forced to stay here?” Kun asked carefully. The look on the boys faces gave him his answer.

“No, none of us are forced to stay here. I know you must’ve thought at the hospital that were going through some form of gang turmoil unwillingly, but if you haven’t seen by the way that they act at least, that were not forced to be here then you may be a bit dense for a doctor,” another voice introduced from the doorway before any of the boys in the room could interrupt. This boy was more Kun’s height and had a cheeky glint in his eye. Kun just glanced up at the boy at the last remark, letting him know the sarcasm wasn’t lost on him. “But just so you know, we aren’t really a gang either, we just make our money by importing cheaper, slightly more strong and illegal medical drugs,” the boy shrugged nonchalantly at the thought. 

“then why is, who I assume as your leader, going to a warehouse filled with crates of weapons?” 

The boy walked in now, rubbing his hands together, a smile covering his face. He ruffled Kun’s hair as he passed. “Now you’re asking the right questions, but can you get the right answer.” 

Kun huffed, letting out a quiet “aiya…” he couldn’t get angry at the kid. If he was being tested, then he would just have to deal with it. “This isn’t my job, you know that right?” 

The others smile widened further. “I know its not your job, but I know you could do it at some point. Probably gave it up around my age huh? Chose not to speak for a while, went to work with your hands,”

Kun knew the boy wasn’t lying, just observing, but I had been too long. “Got any evidence?” Kun threw back, not totally sure why he had to prove anything to this boy. The boy turned his head. The shock of the bright orange hair was parted around his ear, showing an earpiece he could obviously chose to have on or off. 

“I heard you,” Kun breathed in sharply. The others around him were watching as well, the boy who had been helping Jisung was watching with a quiet amusement, Jaemin was watching keenly though, as if he knew too. Jeno was an admirable combination of the two. 

He looked around himself, pretending to take up the time, even if he didn’t need it. He wasn’t that out of practice. 

“You’re not there for the weapons, but for the people,” Kun started, glancing at the boys to see if he was on the right trail. Most of them were smiling. “I know there have been disputes around here for a while, but, but,” he looked from one boy to the other, noticing their intricate differences. The way Jisung held his mouth open slightly at all times, or how Jaemin tried to reserve his smile. “But that’s not what its about. If you were worried about that, you would just move, I've heard you all speak. I think all of your lack of formal education allowed you to focus on your languages.” The boy he had been addressing before nodded, hands moving over his jeans. “So for you its personal, there's something here that’s not allowing you to just give it up. But I'm sure in return, it has given you your fair share of pains.”

The boy nodded sagely, orange hair flying around a bit too. “I mean it took you a while, but you got there,” 

“Were you sure I was going to get there?” Kun asked, just to spite him.

“If you can think fast enough to respond to someone armed with a dozen knives or a gun to a boy, you know how to get to them.” The boy was firm in his resolution. Kun’s eyes swept across the boys. 

“Were all of you there when I ran to the van?” Kun asked, receiving nodding in return.

“I’m sure you remember Renjun was the one helping you get Chenle in, and most of us were in the back,” Jeno offered pointing to the other boy. “By the way that’s Haechan, or Donghyuck, whatever you want to call him, since he forgot to mention it before.” 

Kun nodded to Haechan. “You’re definitely very good at what you do, you’re like my friend, he sometimes has a tongue to sharp for his own good but I can see why you do the ordering,” Haechan laughed in return, arms going behind his back as he rocked slightly back and forward. 

“That’s just because Mark hyung can never decide anything,”

“And Ten hyung is too soft hearted,” Renjun pitched in.

“Plus, Yukhei can never remember what language he’s supposed to speak in,” Chenle finished off. 

Kun nodded as if he understood the true nature of any of these people. 

“But I mean you were right though, you got pretty much everything, pretty good for someone 20 years out of practice,”

“Oh come on,” Kun sighed, allowing the cackles of the teenagers around him to sooth his pain. “So what did I get wrong?”

The cackling increased. The four that were not under sedation started messing around, some occasionally shoving each other, leaving only Renjun sane enough to reveal the source of their mischief. “Come on, we can show you, but just so you know, it wasn’t something, rather someone.”

They all led the way further down the hall to one of the end rooms, cautiously tapping on the door to wait for a reply. As they heard a gruff welcome, they pushed their way in.


	12. Dream in a Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luwoos back plus lets end up getting Taeyong shot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess whos back back again ~ Luwoos back thats who. and me lol tho not as exciting sorry it took me wayyyyyy longer than it should of for this miniscule amount of sort of good work (like 500% is just idek) but hope you enjoy!!!
> 
> AND I PROMISE U WHEN I SAID TAEYONG GOT SHOT ITS NOTHING SEROISU

| Jungwoo 

Breath in. Breathe out. Jungwoo could feel the fire in his throat, the resilient tingle that stayed when you felt like retching. But Jungwoo was breathing. He remembered, even if slightly splotchily, what had happened in the warehouse. Was he dead? No, ghosts don’t breathe. He half couldn’t believe that he was alive, somewhere warm, on something soft, but he didn’t dare move. Lucas. He had trusted him, and he didn’t know if he still should. Even as he asked himself the question his heart started to clench painfully, preparing itself for its broken reality. Lucas had wanted to choke him. He wanted him dead. Even if Lucas hadn’t known it was him, he was still trying to kill someone, whoever was in that warehouse. Jungwoo just tried to stay still. He knew he had no grounds to cry on, it wasn’t like he was any better, but he was still hurt. Something inside of him tried to keep him from allowing the tears from spilling down over his cheeks and into his ears, and right now it was winning. 

When Jungwoo calmed himself just slightly he could hear soft shuffling around the room, the sound of slippers on hard wood floors. Someone mumbling softly to themselves; the un-contented breathing of someone battling their inner turmoil. After a few seconds of delegation, the persons weight dented the bed, pulling down the mattress to the side. Another few seconds passed before a cold finger prodded at Jungwoo’s neck, covered in a sticky ointment. It was then that Jungwoo discovered his neck was already covered in the same ointment, the tacky ointment adding a layer of pressure to the delicate skin, momentarily sending Jungwoo’s heart ablaze. Whoever was caring for him was still muttering softly to themselves, still unintelligible. They moved, their weight releasing the bed springs and little shuffles pulling their owner away from Jungwoo. They washed their hands, Jungwoo could hear he water rushing, it stopped. The person stayed still for a while before shuffling back. They carded their fingers through Jungwoo’s hair, doing it with the utmost care, as if scared to pull at a knot. The mumbling started again but this time it was louder, more distinct, maybe whoever it was was more relaxed, running their fingers through Jungwoo's hair. The person wasn’t talking to himself now, Jungwoo realised, there were words he caught, only the odd one or two, a “sorry,” or a “there,” and even in the familiarly unfamiliar language Jungwoo heard something else too. A name. His name. Jungwoo knew this language, he had heard it spoken before, very few times, but he knew this voice. 

Jungwoo considered it a moment. If he got this wrong, if he decided to open his eyes and he didn’t know who was sitting just behind him, he may die. But it was a risk he was willing to take. Who was carding through his hair, Jungwoo was sure he knew who. They were comfortable in their language, voice soothed and even.

Jungwoo opened his eyes. 

The carding stopped. The light was dim enough that Jungwoo didn’t need to squint to look at the other. Lucas was looking back at him, features completely slack as he stared at Jungwoo’s eyes, as if he had never considered the possibility of seeing them in his life. Jungwoo opened his mouth to talk; to urge Lucas to move, even if it was away from him, Jungwoo didn’t want him to just stay there, but the room was just filled with a loud intake of breath as Lucas threw himself onto his knees on the floor, curling his arms around Jungwoo, allowing the other to slide onto the floor too, pulling him as close as humanly possible. He moseyed into Jungwoo’s shoulder, pressing his nose firm into its crook. Slowly Jungwoo wrapped his arm around Lucas too, leaning his head against the others shoulder, staying in reverent silence for as long as what was needed. 

Some time had passed before either of them spoke, the silence only breaking when Lucas started to whisper, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” over and over again, gaining in volume until he was holding Jungwoo’s arms in his large hands, staring into the others eyes as if asking for forgiveness. 

“It’s okay,” Jungwoo said as soothingly as he could, surprised at his own voice when it came out as more of a croak. Again, as quick as lightning Lucas sprang back up, bringing over a mug of something warm.

“Don’t speak. Drink this,” he handed the mug to Jungwoo, but continued to hold it, tipping it towards the others lips. Jungwoo drank it gratefully, even with the liquid sawing its way down his parched throat. Eventually he could feel the sandpaper feel melt away, leaving him to be able to speak without sounding like he had had one too many cigarettes in his life. When he had finished Lucas had rushed the cup back to wherever he got it from and came back, sitting across from Jungwoo on the bed. 

“I’m sorry.” Lucas said. “Nothing I can do could ever make up for that,”

Jungwoo shook his head, avoiding the others eyes. He reached out his hands, palms facing up, waiting for the other to take them. Finally, he did, resting his hands over Jungwoo’s own, allowing him to squeeze them slightly, if only out of unreceived encouragement. “Nothing you ever do will ever have to make up for that,”

“But I almost choked you to death,” Lucas whispered quietly, looking more like a lost child than the hulking man he was. 

Jungwoo decided to not argue with him on that point, because he may just win it. Instead he turned his attention to something more deliberate. “I was at that warehouse, whenever that was, to do my job. My job, my job is to work in a gang, that just what I do. Whenever we need to go somewhere or do something, I figure out the best way to do it. When I said I had a nosy annoying roommate, I wasn’t lying, Doyoung is all those things, but he also works with me. I was there to do my job, for my strange little family, and I’m sure you were doing the same. I know, if you were in a situation like that, in a place like that, that you don’t always do pleasant things for your jobs, believe me, I know, but also know that I don’t care. If who you’re working with is anything like who I’m working with, then I doubt you have any bad intentions what so ever.”

When Lucas didn’t talk for a while Jungwoo leaned forward slowly and planted a soft kiss gently on the middle of Lucas’ lips, letting him know it would be okay. Finally, the other began to speak. He told Jungwoo about what his job was; professional bodyguard, officially, but otherwise – hitman. Jungwoo nodded, he knew a few of those. His gang, the dreamies, was as he called it less a gang than a bunch of idiots. There was a soft smile when he talked about them though, so Jungwoo knew he meant it affectionately. “all we do is move around and bring with us illegal imports, that’s how we make our money. We don’t deal with weapons, they’re too young to have to deal with that,” he continued on with how there were three of them considered properly as adults, so any time the younger ones needed anything important or guardian issues came up the older ones went out and got it – that was just how they worked. When Lucas had finished explaining most of who he was Jungwoo was only unclear on one thing.

“if you don’t deal with anything particularly dangerous and are always moving, then how did you end up in a territory war?”

Lucas looked more bashful now, mostly avoiding Jungwoo’s eyes. “We usually just leave the city when something like this happens, it’s good, we can learn more languages, find out new things,”

“So why not this time?”

Lucas looked up at Jungwoo keeping his eyes on Jungwoos, noting the slight flicks of brown surrounded in a sea of black. “Because I didn’t want to leave you,”

 

 

| Kun 

 

There were two people sitting cross legged on the bed when Chenle pushed open the door, the dim light presumably coming from a side room lit the figures up just slightly; giving them luminescent silhouettes. Kun had to squint to see that both of them were looking back at him, and momentarily he jolted away from the glances before one of them, probably a few inches taller than him nearly balled him over in a fierce embrace. Kun wrapped his arms around the others waist out of impulse, only after a few seconds recognising the distinctive jacket the other was wearing.

“Jungwoo… we had no idea where you went, Taeyong just went ahead… we didn’t realise,” Kun tried, but Jungwoo just shook his head against Kun’s shoulder. 

“It’s not important,” he said in his characteristic soft voice. “Even if I had gone, you would have needed to carry it through anyway,”

There was a slight waver in Kun’s voice when he spoke next, and he knew he was close to losing his pronunciation. “But we should have checked, we should have made sure you were okay,” 

“I know, I know what happened to the last one. But I’m alright. I’m here, and here is safe yes?” 

Kun nodded, looking momentarily to the boys standing next to them, all pretending to look away, but very, very intently listening. Jungwoo finally let him go, still staying in close proximation to Kun though. “Besides, here has someone I like very much, would you like to meet him?” 

Kun peered back into the room. The man who had been sitting on the bed before was currently smoothing down his shirt, like he was meeting his first boyfriend’s parents for the first time. The man came out from the darker parts of the room, the light from the hallway they were all standing in illuminating him enough for Kun to see his face. The man stood taller than Kun, by several inches but seemed to be playing meek in front of him. “Kun hyung this is Lucas.”

There was a flash of recognition that passed over Kuns eyes as he bowed to the other and Lucas quickly returned the gesture. “Ah yes! Surprisingly I’ve actually heard a lot about you, some from Jaehyun and lots from Doyoung, not so much from Jungwoo though, he wanted to keep you secret, I imagine.” Lucas showed off a huge grin at Jungwoo’s apparent dismay, sneakily taking one of the others hands into his, letting it rock between them. Kun was happy for the pair, much more so apparently than the other boys who were quietly booing Lucas beside Kun, only stopping when Kun looked at them, turning his question to Haechan, not forgetting why he was there. “Are you telling me Jungwoo is why you stayed here?” 

Haechan quirked his head to the side, like he was thinking about it. “Well sort of, it was the reason that big oaf didn’t leave, so we couldn’t leave either, so I guess yeah,”

Lucas at that point looked offended at the other, but not very much apparently because he still was bothered to tug Jungwoo closer to himself as if defending him from the statement. 

“But how did you even end up here anyway?” Kun asked, now throwing his accusatory glance at Jungwoo instead. Jungwoo placed one fingernail in between his teeth and gnawed. The other boys had all turned silent and were looking away again. 

“Lucas may have found me, and brought me here,”

“And why was he there?” Kun kept his questioning glance on Jungwoo, considering the other looked to guilty and red to give a proper answer.

“He may have been there as a guard?” Jungwoo asked, even though he well knew the answer.

Kun sighed. This could take a while. “So how did he find out you were there when you were supposed to be getting past the guards?”

Jungwoo had his eyes firmly on the ground, and he was prepared for the repercussions from Kun when he said it, but he wasn’t prepared for Kun to attempt to lunge at Lucas. “He may have… choked me?”

Kun threw himself at the taller. “HE DID WHAT?!” he nearly screamed, barely avoiding grabbing the others neck before someone had their arms wrapped firmly around his waist and Jungwoo had his wrists. Jaemin, who had apparently been holding him back let him go and started to pat his shoulder in an effort to comfort him. 

“It’s alright Kun hyung he was worrying over it for a good while until Jungwoo woke up, you don’t need to make him feel any worse, as much as we would love you to,” Kun glanced back at the couple, Lucas had his eyes firmly away from Kun and Jungwoo was smoothing down his hair, calming him before the supposed scolding. 

Kun sighed again. “I’m sorry Lucas, it wasn’t good of me to act like that, but Jungwoo is one of our youngest, so I’d prefer if you didn’t choke him,”

“Not un-consensually that is,” someone smartly thought to add from behind Kun, sending them all into childish giggles until Kun sent them a hard look. 

At the comment the couple’s faces were beet red .

 

 

The cold metal rim pressed firmly into Taeyong’s jaw, if it went off, he knew it would hurt like hell, shattering his jaw, going straight through his brain. He had his own gun out, pointing it at the other man’s heart. Neither of the were going to back off. Despite the other man’s protections, the other man’s associates scattered around the warehouse with their guns trained on both Mark and Taeyong, Taeyong still hadn’t been shot. They had been standing at a stale mate for a while, Kun and Jisung long gone. No one had spoken from the time the three of them had all pulled out their guns, the other man seemingly lazily disinterested in the entire affair. Taeyong could feel the weight of the gun pulling at his arm, gravity willing it down. The boy next to him seemed to be tiring to, the furrow that had stuck itself between his brows was starting to soften itself to a stare of concentration, lip being pulled savagely between his teeth in an effort of self-control. Taeyong didn’t know what to do. He trusted that all of his men, his friends were probably being kept busy outside by whoever else the man had brought, so there was no use yelling for them. The man’s lackies hadn’t moved at all, like statues that were capable of staying there forever until the wind and rain swept them away. Making them go wasn’t an option. At some point though, Taeyong knew that someone would have to give in, that someone would no longer be able to hander the pressure. And he did not want to be the one to snap. But he needed to give something a go. Doyoung had once tried to teach him his reasoning, and as much as Taeyong was a logical person, it never really caught on. But what little he did get, he wanted to try it. He was not going to let who looked like just a teenager be the one ending up dead at the end of this mess. He needed to be brave like Kun. 

Taeyong let his eyes sweep to the kid. There was a definitive frown pulling down his lips and small slips of sweat running down his face. Taeyong took a breath in, steadying his hand. “This is really dumb,” he started out in Mandarin, trying to swing his hand casually into his pocket. The boy was glancing from Taeyong to the other man, eyes running erratically. “I have an idea, and it probably won’t work, but we can’t hold on for much longer.” Taeyong’s hand slipped deep into his pocket, fiddling for unlock button. “He doesn’t understand what we are saying, do you agree?” 

Mark looked at the man for slightly longer than before. There was only the slightest tinge of worry shading his face that wasn’t present before and his obstinate eyes held fast onto Taeyong. “Yes,” Mark breathed. 

“So, from here, I’m going to start yelling at you, just loud, not anything harsh,” Taeyong felt the small vibration of his phone as it unlocked. He breathed in deeply and took the precaution of feeling his phone, figuring out exactly where he should put his thumb, when he thought he had found what he needed he tapped his thumb down lightly, and started talking. “Yah! Yah!”

Mark seemed slightly startled at the yelling but soon brought a scowl back to his own face. 

“You have to look offended now Mark or this won’t work!” Taeyong warned. “Sicheng! We can’t keep here forever here’s possibly about half a dozen of them throughout the warehouse, anyone, move, NOW!” 

Mark did as he was told, pretending to be offended at the remark in an attempt to hide his smirk. “Tell them not to shoot me please!” 

Taeyong scoffed as if what Mark had said was a commodity. “There’s a boy in here, brown hair, do not hurt him!” 

The man was getting in a rage now, as if not being included in the conversation hurt his personal pride. His men were starting to look bristled now at their shared lack of understanding. Taeyong had taken to glaring at Mark now, eyes threatening him with that piercing stare. “Mark, I’m sorry, but I need to try this. Now I’m going to explain this to you slowly. I’m going to pull my gun on you. I just got a text alert from the person I was talking to before, so I assume that means they’re coming in soon, and hopefully just waiting for my signal. If all goes well, we will be fine, but this is just a safety precaution.”

“You like those don’t you?” Mark mocked, waving his gun just slightly. 

“Yes, very much so. So, when I call this person in, you’ll know when I do it, you duck and run, okay?”

Mark snarled. The other man sniffed.

“SICHENG,” Taeyong roared, “TEXT IF YOURE READY FOR MY SIGNAL,” 

There was silence for a few seconds before Taeyong felt the small vibration between the pads of his fingers. 

“Best of luck!” Mark roared back, as if to aggravate Taeyong. Taeyong followed the others initiative, switching his gun to align with the boys left shoulder. The man snickered now, as if he could finally contribute to the conversation.

“Oh, look look look at that,” he crooned, “the little baby wasn’t man enough to play with the big boys,” His hand was diverting from Taeyong’s head to his neck if by his own means, Taeyong didn’t know. Taeyong ignored him.

“Doyoung’s a rabbit!” Taeyong finally screamed, and dropped down like lightning, rolling between two crates. All hell broke loose. Several of the crates surrounding and including the once Taeyong was hiding behind had chunks of wood fly up as the bullets hit the corners of the pallets. From the entrance there was a muffled cry and Taeyong could see Johnny pistol whip one of the men before shooting him in the stomach. Most of the men were occupied now by Yuta, Win Win, Johnny and Taeil, Win Win managing to kick one of the men before Yuta sliced a knife up his gut. Yuta really needed to get a gun. But there were still a few that were attempting to either find Mark or himself. Taeyong took a shot at one of the men, hitting him square in the shoulder, the scream that was released told Taeyong he had probably hit the bone. Some of the men had located him now and were pulling their weapons to align with Taeyong’s head, but Taeil was too fast, the man to Taeyong’s left went down hollering and the man to his right Taeyong ducked down to avoid. Mark had shot him instead. Despite Taeyong’s initial estimates there were a few more men than he had thought, so Johnny, Yuta and Sicheng remained occupied. Taeil was hiding behind a crate with Mark, both of them occasionally looking around for others, just in case some of them were still hidden in the depths of the warehouse. 

Taeyong brought himself back up to a crouch and started moving closer to the entrance, where everyone was currently fighting. This area was more so illuminated than any other section of the warehouse, lending itself to eerie shadows as the men fought in front of the main entrance of light. Several times as Taeyong scurried through the boxes he swore he saw someone following only to find that it was an extended shadow. It was only when he was close enough to Johnny to hear the other grunt as someone kicked him in the stomach did he finally realise that his suspicion had been valid. For the second damn time that night he felt the cold rim of a gun up him. 

“Thought you were clever, eh?” the man breathed, pulling Taeyong up to a stand. “You almost got away with it too, too bad.”

He tugged Taeyong up to a standing and wrapped his free hand around Taeyong’s neck. He pushed him savagely into the middle of the fighting, letting out a raw cry to get everyone’s attention. “If you want to keep him alive, you’d better put down your weapons. Now.” Most of them hesitated where they were, Johnny had his gun to his opponent’s abdomen while Sicheng had his to another’s back as the man’s arm was twisted painfully behind himself. Yuta was doing… something. All of them considered it for several moments, the hectic warehouse had suddenly stilled. When it had apparently taken too long for the man’s liking he shook Taeyong around a bit more, tightening his grip on his neck. Yuta was the first to drop his weapons, holding his hands up in the air as a truce. He walked until he was in the middle of the entrance way. He dropped to his knees and put his head behind his head. 

“Okay,” was all he said, eyes now resolute on the floor. 

“No…” Taeyong whispered as he squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see them slaughtered. “No, not for me,”

Another few seconds passed, or it could have been a life time in Taeyong’s opinion. There was a slight shuffling, but before anyone could make their way to Yuta, there was a distinct curl of wind as something whizzed through the air. Taeyong felt a tight sear in the corner of his shoulder and from behind him his captor pulled backwards, like a sting pulling a table cloth away in an absurd magic trick. Life returned to the warehouse again and yet again it breathed blood. Yuta got back up and ran for his blades before anyone had stopped being stunned enough to stop him. The man behind Taeyong was definitely dead, traces of blood seeping through his shirt, right where his heart should have been. Taeyong wasn’t taking the risk though and quickly pried the gun from the dead man’s hand. Another two shots were sound before Taeyong turned back around, and when he did Yuta was long finished, all three of them panting heavily. Mark and Taeil appeared out of nowhere, all of them joining together, grimness overlapping any adrenalin of surviving. Taeyong swallowed hard, getting himself back into leading. 

“Win Win, Taeil, I trust you can both stay here and clean up? Neither of you are hurt?” Both of them nodded an affirmative, first that they weren’t hurt and that they were prepared to start cleaning up. Mark advised them that there were some corrosive acids in the crates in the furthest corners if they needed it. The pair headed off to start work. “None of the rest of you are hurt?” Taeyong asked, “Mark?”

Everyone shook their heads, saying they were fine. Taeyong could already see several gashes and bruises forming on each of them but he wasn’t going to say that. It was only when Mark let out a startled grunt did Taeyong bring his attention to his own wounds. 

“I’m really not far from here, we should all go there.”

“Are you sure we’re welcome?” Taeyong asked cautiously, not wanting to make any of this worse.

“Of course,” Mark offered, ushering all of them out, preparing to lead the way. 

Before Taeyong passed him, he offered the other a deep bow, staying there for several seconds, even with his aching shoulder now that the adrenalin had more so run off. “Thank you,” 

Mark shook his head, showing he didn’t need it. 

“Can I just get one person before we go, I think he needs to know where to go,” Taeyong said, gesturing to his phone. Mark nodded eagerly and went over to the other three, each of them exchanging greetings. 

There was only the dial tone for a few seconds before finally someone picked up. “Hello?”

“Come down now, were going somewhere, and it’s probably best if you come,”

Quiet. “Okay.”

“And bring Doyoung while you’re at it.”

Another small quiet okay.

“And Jaehyun?” Taeyong paused, hearing the small hum of the other. “Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey I mean I finally realised Luca's dream - hes in the dreamies lol (sorry for the lame joke I had to) but hope yalls enjoyed this bit (ie it wasnt complete trash) and feel free to talk to me about said trash writign in the comments, kudos are also always appreciarted <3 have a good day/night/noon <3
> 
>  
> 
> on an unrelated note: HAVE YALLS SEEN THE SM ROOKIES FOR THE CHINA LINE I AM SERIOUDLY NOT PREPARED BUT ALSO CANT WAIT FOR A CHINA UNIT AAAAHHHHH FINALLY KUN CAN DEBUTTTTTT


	13. OUTRO:Vision

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to NCT

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i always forget that the chapter summary counts... so sorry for the constant lame summaries. Anyway! thankyou for surviiving through this whole mess im so glad if anyone had becuase it was guenuinely so fun to write especially developign the characters (KUUUUNNNN) and i hope you enjoyed reading it all,e ven if it took me way too long to write sorry lol

Jaehyun and Doyoung were down in a few minutes, Jaehyun’s gun strapped inside a fake guitar case. Greetings were said again and Jaehyun took to affectionately ruffling Marks hair, not realising that he was basically petting a previous rival gangs leader. They all followed along behind Mark going in and out of the alleys. Yuta drifted back to walk next to Taeyong. He checked Taeyongs shoulder before leaning his head on it and linked one of his arms through. “Are you okay?” Yuta asked, linking their fingers together. Taeyong nodded slowly.

“Do you… do you want to get coffee some time?” Yuta asked, keeping his eyes on their hands. 

Taeyong glanced down for a moment, before turning his eyes to gaze at the others hair. “Do you think now’s the time to try this out?” 

“… I think so. I mean now you won’t be spending hours each night stressing over all this so more time to spend with me?”

“Okay,” Taeyong finally smiled slightly.

Yuta nodded his head in reply, still not looking up, but Taeyong could see the grin that was taking over each one of his sweat shiny features. They walked together for some time, lazily trailing behind Johnny until Taeyong slowly pried his hand from Yuta’s. “I need to talk to him, is that okay?”

“When have you ever needed to ask my permission?” Yuta sassed back moving his attention quickly to his cuticles. Taeyong wound his way past the other couple, barely passing them in the narrow alleyway before he tried to walk up next to the other. Mark was softly humming away, walking at a pace that Taeyong suspected was slowed to accommodate the meandering couple behind him. 

“So ‘Doyoung’s a rabbit,’ huh?” Mark asked grin wide as he rocked back on his heels, looking like a smug little kid who got all the chocolate. 

“Well he keeps neglecting coming on missions with us, its not really his type, so we thought it would be a good one to use.”

Marks laugh was almost ignorantly loud. 

“Besides its short and easy to translate,”

“Have to translate often?” the younger asked, spinning to the side to look at Taeyong.

“Not really, but some of our members are from abroad, so we learn their languages,” 

“Oh?”

“Well Yuta, who I was walking with, he’s Japanese, and Win win and Kun they’re Chinese, and Johnny used to live in America. It was tough for some of us to adjust, especially with the different levels of fluency, but we make it work.”

“That’s important,” Mark replied, face drawn into seriousness as he nodded in affirmation. 

“What about you?” Taeyong asked, “Your Mandarin is very impressive,”

“Honestly speaking?” Mark asked, eyebrows raising high upon his forehead. Taeyong nodded. For a few seconds the other was quiet, eyebrows furrowed as he indicated a turn without much thought. “Well, we started with English, Korean, Mandarin then we went on to Cantonese, Japanese and Thai, then German, Spanish and French.”

“And all of you can speak all of them?”

Mark nodded slowly in long exaggerated bobs. “All though some are better than others,” he smiled at Taeyong though it looked like it was more for himself. “I mean Yuk hei, he’s pretty okay at a lot of the base languages, but his Japanese and German are terrible,” the mere thought of the other trying to speak either of these languages sent Mark into a hyena like fit of giggles. Taeyong decided to put it down to the adrenaline. They rounded one more corner before Mark pulled out his keys, telling everyone that they were only a few doors down. When they reached a very aged and weathered door looking almost like a hole in the wall, Mark came to a standstill. He was lining up the key to the lock, carefully squinting in the dark street, lining it up perfectly when the door swung open revealing about half a dozen boys, including Kun and Jungwoo, who gladly launched themselves at their fellow members. Mark was looking sternly at one of the taller ones though, giving him a nice hard glare.

“I thought we agreed no opening the door?” 

“We had Chenle up there though! He was waiting and just squealed when he saw you all,” Taeyong watched as Mark glared at the other boy before finally giving up on his stance and letting the other have his way, if the big bear hug was anything to go off. After Mark beckoned everyone inside and lead them to the end of the hallway, revealing a cosy loungeroom and kitchen he finally turned his attention back to Taeyong. All of the members seemed to be getting along well, most of them greeting each other and laughing at Jungwoo and Lucas. Taeyong was standing behind his members, one hand resting on Kun’s shoulder while he talked to some of he younger members in rapid fire Mandarin that Mark could barely hope to understand at this hour, and texting with the other. Mark walked over to him, careful not to step on Ten, who was sprawled across the floor or Donghyuck who was trying to attack the former. He tapped Taeyong’s shoulder gently, startling the other man, gesturing for them to go upstairs and talk. Taeyong nodded, finishing up his text before following Mark.

“Ooh the leaders have got to talk ooh!” someone called out, which from Taeyongs view, sent Johnny into a roar of laughter. 

“Shut up Donghyuck!” Mark shouted, rolling his eyes, but there was a smile on his face as he practically leapt up the stairs. When Taeyong had caught up to him at the top of the stairs and was lead to the furthest room down; a small office with a desk pushed to the side and a bed against the far wall, Mark gestured for him to sit down. The other collapsed down onto his own bed, the deep eye bags that plagued his face were prominent now as he rubbed his face over and over again, his fringe ending up looking like a mop. 

“Ah, I didn’t want to do this down stairs, because I don’t know if you know this or not but Lucas, the one who was talking to me when we first came in, he has a particular infatuation with one of your members,” 

Taeyong nodded sagely, remembering how Jungwoo thought he was sneaky when he looped his fingers through the other boys. 

“I don’t mind if you want us to leave,” Mark was so matter of fact about the statement that it caught Taeyong off-guard for a few seconds. “I mean it would probably hurt Lucas, but if you intend to push us further out, or whatever I think it would be much better if we just leave. I don’t particularly want to go through any more violence.”

“… I honestly think,” Mark sucked in a deep breath. “I think it would be better, if you wanted to, if you actually all joined us,” the sincerity in Taeyong’s voice let Mark know that he was serious. “You are all very skilled, I mean we’ve seen that and I wouldn’t want you to keep running, its probably best especially if they’re still growing that they get to stay somewhere, if they want of course. And obviously, I’m sure Jungwoo would prefer to have Lucas around, though I many have to interrogate him first,”

Mark smiled then, nodding along. “I would agree with you on that.”

“that’s good,” Taeyong let out, his own tiredness getting the better of him. Either way though, he stood up, put out his hand and mark did just the same. “Welcome to NCT.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet again thanks for making it trhough this i know it mustve been a struggle lol (hope my ending wasnt too disappointong???) and hpe you enjoyed, comments to talk about my trashy writing are always welcome and kudos are always loved <<33 hope yalls ahve a great day!

**Author's Note:**

> if there is a hell for bad grammar im surely going, hope it was okay???? ik not much happened and im still working through how its gonna actually work *sigh* but i will try and get there lol...
> 
> hope you enjoyed, i mean good on you for at least getting to the end of that mess, but if you liked it, please please please kudo and comment, so i dont feel like this is a self indulgance


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